What's wrong with my plum trees?

[MsWildFlower]

I have three plum trees, I have no idea what they are or how old they are (we have been in the house 1 1/2 years). Two are side by side and espaliered (opps probably incorrect spelling) in a netted vege garden area and another is about 5 metres away.

Last year the tree on it's own had a good crop of plums which all split as we had some heavy rain around December. One of the other trees produced two plums (wow they were nice). The other produced none.

This year there are three plums growing on the tree on it's own .... Why are my trees not fruiting? I even tried self-pollinating between the three ... was that a wrong thing to do? The reason I did that was a neighbour said that he has been getting no plums of late either and he blames the lack of bees. I had planted some 'beneficial insect blend' under the trees in the vege garden and some borage nearby as well in order to attract bees.

Any advice/suggestions so I can eat my own plums next year?

Ta in advance,
Sue

[Millymollymandy]

I don't know - I've got three plum trees too and just learning about them as well. I think plums are self-fertile though, so maybe a tickle with a paintbrush but within the same tree?

[Cassiepod]

I'll have a look in me books tonight... I seem to remember something about plums being a bit unreliable - great one year and poor the next...

[Millymollymandy]

Climate seems to make a difference here - mine don't like being dry at the roots. The first year we lost the entire crop of greengages due to drought; the 2nd year we had hundreds of kilos of the things because we put a seep hose down to irrigate it. Last year when there was plenty of natural 'wet' what looked like a good crop succumbed to brown rot (along with every single peach and most of the apples).

I forgot, I also have lots of Mirabelle plum trees and although they blossom like mad, and there are plenty of insects buzzing around them, I have never had any fruit from them!

I don't think there is any easy answer where fruit is concerned!

[frozenthunderbolt]

often plumbs are biennial fruiters on one year off the other. particularly if they fruit heavily one year they are more likely to be poor the next.

[caithnesscrofter]

are they cherry plums? Myrobalan? They can be unreliable croppers. Plus getting them crosspolinated by cherry treesnearby can bugger them too.

[old tree man]

there is truth in what everyone has said plums are finnicky, another reason is that the last season was one of the dampest on record, this also affects pollination as well as checking the growth of insects.
when the rain is as heavy and constant as it has been it can cause what they call the wash away effect, so don't loose heart lets hope this season is not as bad.

Russ

[MsWildFlower]

there is truth in what everyone has said plums are finnicky, another reason is that the last season was one of the dampest on record, this also affects pollination as well as checking the growth of insects.
when the rain is as heavy and constant as it has been it can cause what they call the wash away effect, so don't loose heart lets hope this season is not as bad.

Russ

Thanks for the replies. We did have a wet spring. I'm quite peeved because a neighbour sells her plums all season long ... she's only about 100 metres up the road but her plums are ok. Grumble grumble.

[marshlander]

In addition, late frosts can zap the flowers. No flowers, no fruit. We had very warm weather early last spring, blossom everywhere, then a late frost - frazzled the lot

[Millymollymandy]

My mirabelles are flowering right now and we are having frosts every night but they don't affect the flowers. I still never get any fruit off them even though there are bees buzzing around them!