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Plum tree
Bergerac
Posts: 15
My plum tree did not have a good blossom this year though some fruits have set and are now a good size however I am now getting a second blossom with extra branches shooting here and there. why does this happen
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Is your tree looking healthy Bergerac? Trees sometimes produce blossom out of season because they're under stress for some reason.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
it is incredibly healthy
Hi
Interesting comment, but Im in Jersey and we had little rain when it blossomed first time round but an interesting thought thanks
How old is it? Thy are notoriously erratic in early years and can take up to 10 yrs to provide any meaningful crop. I have a Damson in its 5th year. It didn't flower for the first 3 yrs. This is the first year I've had lots of fruit - I got 2 last year.
Hi many thanks for replying, its been an interesting tree to say the least, first year I got a few fruits, second year unbelieveable crop have uploaedd a pic of blossom it was incredible. Following year not bad. 4th year almost nothing because it blossomed end of January. Same the next year. The following year big crop but unable to eat because all fruit went rotten before it ripened. I gave it a good pruning and last year onlyhad 2 or 3 fruits. This year it wont be a big crop but will be better.
The first pic show the second blossom this year have just noticed severed attack of white fly,,,second pic massive blossom was 2nd year. I eventually had branches 5 ft long touching ground with fruit from beginning to end
I you have a heavily laden tree in one year it's useful to thin out the fruit about now by removing alternate fruits. You'll end up with nearly the same weight of fruit but made up of fewer big ones rather than lots of little ones. This reduces the stress on the tree (because it has to make fewer stones) and makes the fruits nicer to eat and/or easier to cook.
Doing this might (might) encourage thr tree to fruit more moderately every year, which is better for you and for it.
(If the branches are still really heavily laden you might thin again later on and/or prop up the branches to stop them breaking, as they tend to do this.
You can look forward to plum crumble, plum pie, plum jam, plum brandy....)
To be honest Bergerac the amount of wonderful blossom in those photos who cares if it has fruit, it's amazing anyway!