I’m a relatively new stone fruit grower. I’ve only gotten a dozen or so fruit from a single tree before (Sweet Treat Pluerry, Santa Rosa plum), so no thinning…
I’m just going by what I’ve read about FG and what looks like a lot of fruit that pollinated on mine in it’s first year perhaps holding fruit.
I’m going to wait for a few weeks and see how it looks.
I’ve read for larger fruit (not cherries as an example) you don’t want more than one fruit every, say, 4-6 inches. This allows the tree to fully size and mature the fruit. I’d especially think that is true for a younger tree. It also helps avoid the tree alternating every other year fruiting as it doesn’t deplete the trees resources as much.
I’ll give it a shot and see how it goes this year.
That’s a pretty low set for FG. On branches like that it’s partly how much weight will the branch support. The lower branch looks OK as is. The upper I’d take off one or two. There are usually hidden fruit that seem to appear out of nowhere.
I’d be surprised if any of those big ones fall off on their own. I had one fruit bigger than that fall off one tree this year so far. To be fair I don’t have much set on second leaf trees.
I think it’s good news for now then. I have many bigger than that by far. It may be we simply don’t have much of an occurrence of them here, or I’m being naive and they just haven’t found the tree yet.
I’m wondering how long into the summer these actually ripen… I just don’t see them waiting all the way to September /October with the growing season here…
I think it’s time to bag them. Should I try my first Surround spray? Never used it before. Hmmm.
Nice looking fruits, really growing fast! Not sure what your insects are but I do not have to use surround on mine since so far I’ve been lucky with very few insect issues. If I can finish trapping my squirrels before summer my biggest pest problem will be solved. Surround works well on fruit that it easily washed off from, but unless you plan to peal your plums I might suggest bagging rather that using surround. Mainly because if they need to get soft to be ripe, washing them well enough to eat the peeling may not work well. So unless you have a lot bagging may be the best protection for plums. I do use surround on peaches and apples, and it washes off them wit warm soapy water. I actually grafted a few Flavor grenades this spring so thanks for posting Phil!
Dennis
Kent, Wa
The tree set about 50 fruit. I’ll probably bag as many as is practical… Maybe some with two in a bag.
I do have a family of squirrels in my yard so…
As far as other insects, I really don’t know what to expect really. I’ve only had a handful of plum and pluerry on my trees last year with first fruit.
It seems the birds were the biggest issue as they’d take a few bites and of course leave the fruit exposed. I just ate them crunchy and sour… Still better to eat a underripe homegrown fruit than a sack of water from the store.
In my old property in Wilmington, DE, it ripened mid-late September, so I would say early-mid Aug for you. If you like em tart, you can pick them yellow to orange, if you prefer sweet (like me) then wait till they are solid red (more like orange red, not dark or bright red, if I remember correctly).
To be honest, it’s quite unheard of to trap squirrels in a residential area around here. In all my years living in suburbia I’ve never heard of it or even thought to…
My solution, ultimately, might be what Richard has done with individual cages.
I haven’t noticed Richard posting this spring.
@Richard Everything going well for you this spring?
. It helped that my only neighbor who can see my backyard hated them.