@JCT how do you hand pollinate such a small blossom? I also have passion fruits and hand pollinate but I have no clue how you’d do that with plums? I was going out there with a small fan and creating breeze around the blossoms hoping that would work but alas it clearly didn’t. So please share how you do it!
@SoCalGardenNut Yes I wonder if maybe it just needs to be more mature. I looked again at the weekend and looks like around 6 baby plums currently. OK still pathetically low but I only got 1 plum the first 2 years so going in the right direction LOL!
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I think that’s how some trees work, I had 3 apricots the first year, then 5-6, then after that multiple apricots that I don’t count anymore.
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@GiddyUp … i did my first graft last year… one mulberry 4 apples… 100% success.
This year i have grafted 10 pears, 12 persimmons, 8 apples, 5 cherry, 3 goumi, 1 plum and the large majority are looking like success.
It is somewhat addicting… not as difficult as you might think… and very usefull to make your orchard dreams come true.
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@TNHunter I just looked it up online and yes actually doesn’t look as tricky as I would have thought. Perhaps I’ll give it a go if I can find a neighbor with a tree which blossoms at the same time. Thanks for sharing!
@GiddyUp … late fall and winter lots of folks here work out trades for scion wood.
I traded apple and mulberry and oak and persimmon scions for persimmon, goumi, plum, pear, cherry, apple scions … with different members here.
I had one variety of persimmon here on my place last year… and have 10 now. I also increased varieties of goumi apple pear plum cherry.
Some will send you scion wood without trade… perhaps if you pay postage.
So… you may not be totally dependant on your neighbors for swapping scion wood.
Good luck.
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Finally managed to get the picture! This is my tree…look like a Santa Rosa to you?
@TNHunter OK thanks! Good to know. I’ll definitely look into it. I have got 4 fruit trees right now (plum, apple, cherry, lemon) but I’d sure love to add to that! I actually do have space for more trees it’s just that they would block our mountain views so this is a great alternative. Thanks!
Well, I apologize. I didn’t make myself clear: Excess N creates lush vegetative growth, but at the expense of Potassium uptake necessary for flower and fruit formation.
To an extent you can do an end-run around the over-application of N by spraying at, say, biweekly intervals during the growing season with a 300 ppm solution of MPK ( about a half-teaspoon of the granular stuff per gallon).
Of course you should limit N application and make soil application of Potassium as well.
Doesn’t hurt anyway at such a conservative application rate.
@kokopelli5A no I understood you! I just meant I’ve not seen what looks like excessive growth. The tree is a little bigger than last year but not a lot. That said, I’m happy to send in a soil test to a lab to see what the numbers look like. I did notice fewer blossoms this year (and they also looked smaller than last year?) so perhaps the nutrients need adjusting. I have a spare lab test at home (one of those mail in ones…) so happy to do that.
OK. Most soil labs don’t give a N value since it’s so easy to fix N and N is here today gone tomorrow anyway.
A good Potassium value may not be reassuring information. The problem isn’t lack of Potassium but excessive N blocking uptake of Potassium.
Your closeup picture looked pretty lush to me, but I realize that may be misleading and anyway, a matter of opinion.
Interesting. So labs don’t test for N so the only way I have of knowing if I have too much is by judging if the growth is too lush/excessive but since I’ve not ever seen a Santa Rosa plum before I have no way of knowing what it should look l like. A conundrum indeed!!! 
Just burry a lot of banana peels, that’s Potassium.
@SoCalGardenNut oh interesting I didn’t know you could do that! But that said, what @kokopelli5A is saying is that if I have too much N it will be blocking the uptake of K. So even if you add more K don’t think that solves the problem if you have too much N. But I don’t even know if I have too much N so I’m honestly not sure how to proceed! Wish gardening was easier LOL!
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Try your best this year. Your tree does look to have more greens than mine.
Here is a picture of mine 2-3 years ago, it had about 2-3 fruit then. The tree on the right with a red tag for Shiro plum.
Ok so here is a full size pic of mine…now that I’m looking at it in comparison with others I guess it is quite lush looking so maybe @kokopelli5A is right about the N problem!
No way of knowing for sure, really. But at a 300ppm application rate, you won’t hurt anything even spraying every couple of weeks during the growing season.
Come to think of it, I wonder if this “Santa Rosa plums don’t fruit well in the East “ conventional wisdom isn’t attributable to the overall greater soil fertility Back East. Pure speculation on my part.
I either use a q-tip or small paint brush to collect some pollen and gently dab the other flowers with it. Sometimes I’ll pluck a single bloom and use that as my ‘brush’. It seems to work.
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I’m re-reading your OP, you said you added compost, I only added compost when I first planted the tree, nothing after that. I do give my fruit trees a fertilizer stick and that’s it. My soil is very hard clay.
However, only two types of fruit trees that I give my compost to, I have limited compost, is jujube and avocado.
