Whats happened to all the plums?

[Brod]

Has anybody else noticed a lack of plums on the trees this year?
Theres no fruit at all on our plum trees (Blaisdons, Victorias and greengages) except for one tiny sucker which has about 4 plums on, and my friends plum trees in South Wales haven't any fruit on either.

Local concenus is that it was due to the late frosts but has the same thing happened elsewhere in the country ?

[lsm1066]

Me too. My Victoria seems ok, although less fruit than last year. My early (purple skin, yellow flesh. Don't know the variety) has about 20 on it altogether. At least the apples and pears are looking good.

Lynne

[ina]

My tree is full of them - and the tree is still in a (large) container, as I don't know where to plant it! So I'm watering like mad to make sure they don't all fall off due to lack of water...

Not a single damson on the tree, though.

[Millymollymandy]

Oh gosh this must be about the 20th time I have seen this question asked in the last few months..........


There are very few plums, peaches or pears this year either in the UK or France due to the extremely early blossoming time (during a rainy period) which was due to the extremely mild winter. Tis just one of those things!

[Shirley]

We haven't got any on our trees either, but we didn't have an early blossom time. Last year's crop was particularly good though.

[Thomzo]

I didn't get any last year despite the tree being very protected from frost. This year I hand pollinated and seem to have a lot more coming. I wonder if it's to do with the loss of the bees rather than the frosts?

Zoe

[Millymollymandy]

We have millions of bees here but there were very few insects out and about at blossom time because of the rain.

[Bluemoon]

We have precisely one Victoria plum from two trees (and even that's tiny......but it's going to be MINE mwah ha ha ha) They seemed to flower very early (mid-March) and then be annihilated by a late frost just as the flowers were dying back.

[jampot]

we have an old comercial plum orchard near our allotments (town once had a jam factory ) most years it has so many plums you cant pick too many and smells like brandy when the windfalls rot ,but this year there is barely a fruit to be seen
all we can hope is next year will be a bumper harvest i suppose

[JR]

Yep I have noticed too!

[Millymollymandy]

I did have a few greengages on a very big tree but they've now all got holes in where the wasps and flies have been eating them, and they weren't even ripe!

[Enormous Sage]

Same here - there are quite a few on my two trees, but they seem to have gone from unripe to rotten in one stage, without ever being ripe!
I managed to salvage 4 or 5 of them. I normally get more than I know what to do with, and this year I was planning on making wine with them.

[Peggy Sue]

I had big plans for all the wasted plums on a nearby farm that ended up as rotten windfalls and a damson tree overhanging a friends garden- it was going to be my debut attempt at plum jam- Not a single fruit anywhere to be found

[richyboy]

Just to buck the trend, I am happy to report that over the bank holiday weekend I picked (and stewed) enough of the bloody things to fill a freezer drawer - so that's me in crumble until next year!

That's just off the one big, old tree mind you. Our other plum tree was uber-hard-pruned this time last year down to a 6ft stump and has not fruited as the energy went into growing. We do have some cracking branches coming-along though and next year we should have a good crop off this one too. Especially if I get my bees!

If anyone wants any frozen stewed plums, I'm sure you will find my prices of this rare and valuable commodity quite reasonable!

[stokeygrower]

Garden next door has small plum tree, about 3 metres high, and it had so much fruit it snapped branches! They kindly let me pick at least 7 kilos, and I others had about another 7 kilos....I think it's a Victoria. The flat has been empty until this Spring, so the tree has been left to its own devices...presume it escaped the frost being in a sheltered city garden.