My Beauty plum and Satsuma plum are now flowering like crazy! For anyone who has just started growing fruit trees, patience will pay off.
Both plums have been in ground for 5 years and both were large 15 gallon trees when planted. I’ve had zero Satsuma plums and around 3 Beauty plums during the past 5 years. I’ve grafted all over them like crazy last year because I thought the trees would never produce fruit. They didn’t really even produce more than a handful of flowers. I’ve tried different watering schedules, fertilizer rates, grafting pollenizers, and about everything else you could think of. None of it seemed to help the trees flower and fruit. I’ve done nothing different this year. Almost every single branch is covered with flowers or flower buds.
Despite having less than 100 chill hours, I’m pretty optimistic that I will finally have a nice crop of plums. I know I probably shouldn’t be counting my chickens before they hatch but there are already 20 times more flowers on the trees right now than there have been in the past 5 years combined.
To think that I had the chainsaw out and ready to cut down both trees last year…
Honesty, I can’t thank everyone from the old GW forum and here for all of their great advice, especially the ones that told me to be patient and the fruit will come. Thanks!
Thanks for your enthusiasm and reminder to us newbies that “if you plant it, they (fruits) will come”. All my trees are 4 years old and younger so I’ve had almost no fruit at all so far, and a hard late freeze ruined my chances of peaches this year. Sometimes I get so impatient and frustrated, so I really enjoyed your post…the excitement, relief, and enthusiasm come through so clearly! Congratulations.
Those blossoms are a beautiful sight. Congratulations! It took me 8 years after planting to get my first Burbank and Santa Rosa plums. Compared to how long it takes any of my trees to bear, yours are precocious.
What a lovely sight!! I can picture the scent of the plum blossoms wafting in the air… Your enthusiasm is contagious…very happy for you. A lot of us can relate. I get lot’s of blossoms on my six year old plums, but so far only a few plums that hang on to maturity. At least I had one to taste last year.
It is strange that people are having to wait so long for their trees to bloom. Almost all of mine so far have bloomed in either the first year or the second year. The only one I have that has not bloomed yet is a Golden Dorsett Apple that is 3 years old. My plums all were covered with blooms the first year I planted them though the last two years they were killed by a late freeze.
Satsuma plum has 1 plum hanging on, will be my first if it hangs on. But fortunately, all of the grafting I did to the tree the past 2 years will provide a handful of Burgundy and Santa Rosa plums this year.
Beauty plum has delivered!! I know I should have thinned even more but considering my utter lack of plums the past 6 years, I let a lot more grow. Had those 2 weird ones that had the brown areas on them and a bunch that were split (maybe from my neighbors lawn sprinklers), but there are several that look really good. The red bird tape has been awesome! (Thanks Patty) I haven’t had one plum birdlarized.
Hi Brownmola,
Indeed, your plums are very beautiful. I know you’ll enjoy every single bite. Congrats and continued success! Plums and pluots are my absolute favorite. Great growing!!!
I was out in the yard inspecting some of the grafts and I noticed about 7 different clumps of flowers on the Beauty plum. My last plum from that tree was eaten about 3 weeks ago.
