That’s encouraging! It will be interesting to see how it produces. Did you plant a seed from store bought fruit?
Dennis
Hi Nicholas,
This morning the weather cleared here so I could get a good pic of my three year old Sweet Treat graft. It actually resembles your pic and has similar growth habits, so I was mistaken about those thorn looking stub branches. Perhaps yours is what you think it is after all. Once it fruits it should be easy to confirm, just thought you might want to know I was wrong about my comments. Here is my Sweet Treat graft I got from Vincent. Once it leafs out in Spring I can send you a foliage comparison shot. Take care and Merry Christmas
Dennis
Kent, wa
@DennisD my cherry plum seedling from stored Verry cherry plum fruits.
So Vincent, I am also growing a number of plums from seeds, I am wondering how long does it take to get mature enough to flower? I am estimating 5 years. Was this your cherry plum’s first year to flower?
Dennis
@DennisD My cherry plum is 6 years old. They started flower about 3 years old but fruit won’t keep. I did not fertilize much yet, I will give it some bone meal fertilizer next spring.
Thanks Vincent,
I have three Wild Goose trees that I ordered from Okios in 2020. Last spring they all flowed but did not pollinate. I noticed that the blossoms were slightly different among the three trees although foliage was the same. So I inquired of Okios why they did not set fruits. Here is a note I received back: Wild Goose plums: Note from Okios: Yes. Same population from 7 plants in that group including the original selection that is grafted. All are from the same grafted parent originally and will cross with one another. As far as I know they are all self fertile. If the trees flower and do not produce fruit for the first 1-3 years, this is normal. The trees are not mature enough to hold fruit. This is common for seedling trees which will usually end after the second year depending on the vigor of the plants. I use pellitized chicken manure and gypsum but you could also use composted cow manure and gypsum. These two things improve vigor and health which then makes the tree set fruit as soon as possible. The trees will cross with each other as well and it is likely their close proximity will aid in the production of fruit more than if they were by themselves. Hope that helps.” Ken Asmus, Okios.
So this next spring I will use your bone meal idea which should help in addition to his suggestion of composted manure and gypsum.
Then as the buds are swelling I will spray them with a boron solution, mixing 2 Tsp, 20 mule team borax per gallon of water in several applications.
Does boron promote flowering?
Boron plays an important role in regulating plants’ hormone levels and promoting proper growth. Boron increases flower production and retention, pollen tube elongation and germination, and seed and fruit development.
Dennis
Looks like mine. Im still hopeful that mine are fruiting spurs. I’ll update when the buds are swelling.
Was looking at my Sweet Treat today.
I do have some spurs on my 2+ year old wood. I never thought of them as thorns, though perhaps the way my tree has grown makes it look less like that.
I have one bloom and a few spots with flower buds pushing. There seems to always be a few on my trees out of time.
It’s been a decent winter here with few extremes, so I’m not sure why those few branches want to wake up.
Supposed to be some more significant cold headed south in the second half of January, so I hope my trees hold out.
Looked again today…my sweet treat had a few dozen spaced out blooms.
I don’t know what it’s thinking. Perhaps it got it’s chill and is trying to break dormancy? But it hasn’t been warm and the sun angle is still low.
Anyway the tree is not shaped well. If I don’t get a good bloom in true spring, I might do some major surgery and let it grow back with better scaffolding…
A bit of a hijack on the thorn thread, but this is the only active sweet treat thread I saw.
This is a seedling I grew out from a grocery store pluot. It is far more thorny than other pluot/plumcot seedlings the same age. I’m hoping for blooms this year or next year. Hoping all these “thorns” will have flowers on them eventually.
Looks like the makings of a good deer fence. ![]()
My guess is that won’t happen. It’s more likely they’ll cease to grow and as a result die. I hope you can prove that wrong. I don’t remember those thorns having fruit.
My seedling trees flowered well this year. Unfortunately it was a weird spring where everything was ~3 weeks early and a frost got all the small fruit. I apparently didn’t take good pictures of all of the trees, as I only have one picture of one of the less thorny trees.
Some (I hesitate to say many) of the “thorns” did flower on these trees. This is purely anecdotal and I wouldn’t be sad if most of the “thorns” eventually died off, as they do make pruning less enjoyable. If I can remember I’ll try to get some better pictures next spring.




