plum confused

[Loobyloo]

A lovely stream runs aong the side of my garden and along side it grows a number of lovely things to pick, elderberries, hazelnuts, brambles hmmmm can't wait till there all ripe! One tree I noticed when we moved in, I was sure it was some kind of fruit tree but couldn't place it and it didn't seem to have any fruit ripening on it. I have now noticed that among the branches are two (yes two!) pretty little plums. I'm very pleased at having a plum tree but am curious as to what would cause it to produce so poorly. Is there anything I can do to help it along for next years crop?

Any ideas?


xx

[Thomzo]

It might just be a bit young. My newest plum has only fruited properly for the first time this year after about 3 years.

Cheers
Zoe

[snapdragon]

my 'cherry plum' (wild plum) has only produced an abundant crop this year, she's about five years old I guess - and ten foot or so high.
Previous years there were none; a couple; a few; and a handful, this year she's gone berzZzurk am expecting her to take a year off now

[Millymollymandy]

There's lots of reasons why plums or any other fruit tree produces badly - weather, lack of pollinating insects, disease, 'bad' insects etc. I have a lovely plum tree that was covered in blossom and now has about 6 pathetic and not very healthy looking plums on it. This is our 5th year here and we've only had one year where we had any plums to pick! Bit like some years you get loads of apples and some years you don't..... it's very hit and miss unless you spray umpteen million chemicals all over.

P.S. You still need to change your location which says Surrey!!!

[Odsox]

Victoria plums are famous for producing a huge bough breaking crop one year and then resting for a couple of years, but as others have said it could be for loads of reasons, especially at flowering time ... frost, wind, too hot, too dry, too wet, any excuse to have a year off and do nothing.

[Milims]

Odsox is right, trees have a period of abundance and then a couple of fallow years. Also, if the branchess are too crowded they don't fruit well. We cut the middle branches and crossing branches out of our tree and it's fruiting much better now

[Odsox]

We cut the middle branches and crossing branches out of our tree and it's fruiting much better now

Just a word of caution here, it's best to cut branches from plum trees when they are actively growing (like now) and not in the winter like other fruit trees.
One of the worst diseases, or even THE worst disease that plums can get is silver leaf and the spores get into the tree through open wounds in the wood.
During the growing season the wounds through pruning are quickly healed and are then safe from infection.

[Millymollymandy]

My greengage has silver leaf disease and we've been waiting for the right time to prune off some dead branches, which will be very soon (when it's not raining!).

All three of my plum trees have rust this year for the first time ever. There's always something wrong and this is so annoying because all the leaves are dropping/blowing all over my veggies!

I'm going to buy two more plum trees and plant them in my orchard where there's actually a decent depth of soil and it is the dampest part of my land. Or maybe I'll just give up and buy the darn things from the supermarket - I don't buy them because I think I'll have my own in September, but by then they've usually all fallen off or get brown rot. And they stop selling them in the shops soon after that because the season is over.