Forum home› Fruit & veg
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Plum and greengage not springing into life!

dja70dja70 Posts: 6
in Fruit & veg
I planted a Jubliee plum and Cambridge gage (both on dwarf/pixy rootstocks) last autumn. They came in large pots at around 3 ft and were in leaf at the time. So far this spring they have not shown any sign of growth - there appear to be small buds but they aren’t jumping into leaf. I’ve scratched the bark back slightly and the wood is green. Am I just being impatient? Or is this a sign that they are not happy and something is wrong? Any advice would be appreciated.

Posts

  • dja70dja70 Posts: 6
    Thanks, that’s helpful.
    I’m not too far from you - over in Sheffield. It has been a mild winter, but I would’ve thought they’ve had enough hours below 7c - I certainly have!
    Like you say, I may as well be patient and see what happens, just wondering if anything might be wrong that I can be proactive about.
    Thanks again.
  • dja70dja70 Posts: 6
    They’ve been in the ground since last autumn. I think I’ll just have to be patient and see
  • seacrowsseacrows Posts: 234
    My Dad is in Sheffield, he has two four or five year old plums. They've always been slow, blossom happens later than any other fruit tree. He chucks some blood&bone down around them about now, I don't know whether that helps them start growing, but by July they're heavily leafed and producing very pretty fruit. One of them is Victoria, no clue on the other.
  • dja70dja70 Posts: 6
    Thanks for this, seacrows,
    reassuring to hear they can be late.
    I’ll put down some fb&b tomorrow.
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    edited May 2022
    Interesting @seacrows Here in the SW our 2 plums and 2 gages are the first of our fruit trees to flower ans they flowered late March and did really well and hopefully the pollinators were in time and the fruit will set. They are all in the ground. If only the pigeons would stop taking the leaves of these trees!
    @dja70 maybe they are still young and are still establishing them selves in their new ground.
  • seacrowsseacrows Posts: 234
    @bertrand-mabel I figure plums are like apples, you get early-, mid- and late-flowering varieties. You certainly get plums just coming ripe on one tree when the next door tree has finished. Gages I have no clue about, I spent years thinking they were just yellow plums.
Sign In or Register to comment.