Martin Brown wrote:

On 23/11/2017 00:28, brian mitchell wrote:

Hi,

I'm having much trouble over some years successfully growing plum
trees. I did have two Victoria Plums which cropped quite abundantly
for two years then mysteriously died. I replaced them with a Czar and
a yellow damson, neither of which have fruited well --abysmally, in
fact.

I had no problems growing plums in Belgium which is a fair bit warmer in
summer than the UK but also had colder continental winters.

The opinion was given on GQT that climate change is a possible reason
why plums aren't doing well in the south of the country, the thought
being that the trees aren't going properly dormant in the milder
winters and therefore not setting fruit. I'm in South West Wales, more
or less on a level with Cardigan. There are bullace (wild plum) all
around in the hedgerows, so I doubt it could be a pollination problem.

If you get a decent flowering and they are not being frosted (which is
what often does for my Nashi tree crop) then I would suspect a lack of
the right pollenator nearby as a more likely cause.

My questions a is anyone else here located in the southern part of
the country and, if so, do you recognise this problem? Also, are you
having success with a particular plum variety?

Victoria plums next door crop loads the tree almost to breaking point
every year unless we have a badly timed frost during flowering. This was
true even in years where the grass grew year round and we had unforced
rhubarb crumble during Xmas week.

I'd really like to be able to grow plums and will try again, so I'm
interested in ideas about varieties and any general tips, dos and
don'ts I may have transgressed.

I'd try getting a pollenator in of the right sort first.

Thanks. I think I'll try Victoria again, and that's in the same group
as Czar. Unfortunately I can't remember the damson variety, it was a
while ago.

I had a lot of trouble with tree disease for a while, affecting a lot
of woodland trees I planted. I sent leaf samples off to be analysed
but nothing obvious was found. I now put it down to the use of
glyphosate, which I didn't use round the fruit trees but did use round
the woodland trees, and the orchard area is downhill from there on a
fairly steep slope. I've not used it for several years now and not had
any re-emergence of the trouble I had before; circumstantial, of
course, but a possible connection. That might have affected the
Victoria trees, since apples also showed signs of the mystery disease.