Ohhh my plumbs

[RPA]

Trained a few fruit trees along our fence a few years back. Seems to be a good plumb year

[Mac McLennan]

Cool......will they end up as jam or something?

[RPA]

Crumble/Jam etc (the wifes bit )

 

Made some plumb Gin last year, more will be on the way soon

[David Humphries]

 

Made some plumb Gin last year, more will be on the way soon

 

 

Are you at liberty to divulge the recipe, Richard?

 

Sounds very interesting

 

 

 

.

[treedave]

I wonder if they go in cycles like Damsons? Our Vicky plum just about broke the last 2 years it had that much on, but not a sausage (or a plum even!) this year.

[RPA]

Are you at liberty to divulge the recipe, Richard?

 

Sounds very interesting

 

 

 

.

 

Basically the same as Damson/Sloe Gin (bottle gin/2lb fruit/1lb sugar - once you have made some adjust to your taste). Got to freeze fruit first though even just overnight. Give it a shake every day until sugar disolves and resist decanting it as long as you can.

 

When you have finished have the fruit with cream - but watch the portion size, a mate didnt last year, when he tried to stand up he fell flat on his face

[RPA]

I wonder if they go in cycles like Damsons? Our Vicky plum just about broke the last 2 years it had that much on, but not a sausage (or a plum even!) this year.

 

Not good with fruit trees but think plumbs etc fruit of 2 year old growth not last years like apple. The plumb tree seems to go on 2 year cycle, prob to do with the way I prune it with being trained

[Log-ologist]

Years ago i worked for a London escapee who asked if the tree in the end of the garden was diseased. Discussion went like this.

 

" what s those black things on that tree is it a disease"

 

No lady theys plums.

 

" are they safe to eat , they seem to have mould on them"

 

No lady thas bloom.

 

" oh , will you pick some for me"

 

 

an hour later she was showing of her marvelous crop to all the other school mums who poped in for a coffee.

 

 

I rekon she thought plums came from a supermarket in a packet.

[Dagmar]

Looks like a great crop for this year, mine are rather sparse but were heavy croppers last year.

Plum trees are erratic in producing fruit - one year they produce too little and the next year they produce too much. How you prune has little effect on the production – unless you prune after the blossom! It's more likely that you will need to thin fruit to prevent branches breaking under the weight. It's not unusal to use branch supports on Plums to make the most of a particularly good year. If you need to thin the fruit do it in two stages May/July. Leave approx 3” between plums – they do not like to touch each other

 

 

 

You have only two considerations when pruning plum trees. Getting the shape that you want and to avoid any infection with silver leaf disease. Avoid silver leaf disease by pruning in June , do not prune in the winter. Burn any diseased or dead wood. Pruning of the trees will depend on the form , whether it is pyramid, bush, standard or half standard. Pyramids are pruned differently to the others.

[chestnut]

plums are thin on the ground around my parts this year - combination of frost but mostly wind and rain , knocking off the blossom

 

i've taken advantage of this really - as it's a good year for restoration pruning (as no fruit are there - no fruit are lost)

 

most fruits respond well to pruning - but not many like more than a third taken off at any one time - so unless a major restoration is required - i would not recommend a heavy pruning session (at least i get to go back to do it again next year, and the year after)