Someone can tell me “I told you so” For what it’s worth, I headed to my little orchard this morning to thin these plums. Honest, I really was.
It’s not a big loss. I don’t know the variety. This tree did not bear - other than one plum - since I’ve had it. This year I tied blooming branches from Shiro and Hollywood in the canopy of this tree, when it was blooming. Maybe that is why it set so heavily. It is too tall for me to thin fruit without a ladder. I avoid ladders due to a disagreement I have been having with the force of gravity. This tree now has added grafts of Shiro, P. cerasifera, and Methley, so I won’t need to collect blooming branches once they are blooming.
I did thin everything I could reach, to about one fruit per foot. That is still more than I will need. The fruit - laden branches un-drooped quite a bit, out of reach again but that’s OK.
Wow Bear, that’s a lotta plums. Your pollination trick worked in spades it looks like! Those plums seem to have nice size already. I aspire to have such problems one day, m’ dear!!!
What final color does this plum (the one you got. anyway) ripen for you? I hope they are good, in any case.
My huge apple is going to get a major drop-crotch style reduction this spring because ladders are just not in my future and I just can’t thin or it bag right.
I too feel that gravity is getting more irascible, difficult and disagreeable with every passing year. Its gravity’s fault, right? Surely it can’t be us.
This was a great year for plum set in our area I guess.
You can thin off some of those laden branches to relieve some strain the supporting branch. Or even heading back the fruiting limbs until they ripen and then thinning back therest of the headed branch would work.
The further cantilevered out the fruits are, the bigger the moment arm and resulting stress/strain at the base of the branch. So cutting off the outer half of fruit will reduce the strain on the branch by much more than half.
On wimpy limbs, when I thin, I keep the fruit closer to the crotch for that reason.
Okay, that said, here’s a Beauty plum that went both un-pruned and un-thinned with predictable results:
@Olpea, you are right - I’m very happy about all of the fruit set. My concern was the fruits would be too small or not ripen from overset, or next year no fruit. I completely forgot about breakage.
@Brethil, If I remember correctly, these plums are red inside and greenish on outside. I only got one to taste last year, and I have forgotten. I’m no connoisseur, but I thought the one that I got was tasty. Big, too, but it had thousands of leaves to feed it. This year the plums have to fight for food
@Murky, when I finally got to it, I did prune the distant plums more than the ones closer to the center. Some of the branches sprung upward, nicely. Losing all of those Beauty plums… frustrating!
@Applenut, that looks like a project! I am thinking about a miniature version of that for my containerized peach, which I thinned heavily but the branches are bowing significantly from the peaches that remained.
Appleseed70, I already get more fruit on that tree than I know what to do with. If I had time to prop it up, I’d use it for the long neglected pruning instead.
I’m not really a fan of Japanese plums, I like the firmer, meatier European ones. Beauty is way too soft and juicy for my tastes, although it does make great red sweet/tart jam. Oh, and did I mention it bears well
This is a 2D tree against a south facing brick chimney.
For what it’s worth, I headed to my little orchard this morning to thin these plums. Honest, I really was.
