JKS wrote in message
...


Hi John,
This sounds perfectly normal for a Victoria Plum. Until two years ago,
we
had a great tree which fruited itself to death. It became too tall to
thin
out the fruit and, despite attempts to support the branches, three major
branches snapped under the weight. Subsequently Silver Leaf Disease set
in,
ergo no more tree. I am now waiting for a fan-trained Vic Plum to
develop
before allowing it to fruit.

It may be that the smaller, inedible fruits were aborted by the tree to
save
itself from over-cropping, but did not fall with the usual June drop.
Just
a guess. Your most important concerns now are making sure there are no
bad
fruit left on the tree and, next year, to support weighted branches to
prevent breakage and the onset of disease. Also, it wouldn't be a bad
idea
to give it a feed now with tomato fertiliser to 'thank' it for its
efforts
and to replenish it's potassium reserves. This will also help to harden
it
off for winter.

Spider

Thanks for the information.

I lost half the tree about 12 years ago due to a heavy crop and no
supports.
I treated the bare wood and it survived ok. Plenty of supports and
thinning
this year - I like unripe plums better than fully ripe ones.

Any ideas about the conjoined fruits?

John


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Hi John,

Being a twin myself, perhaps I should know more about the conjoined fruits.
However, I am not a conjoined twin, and my 'twinny' biology is not that
great. Sometimes, with fruit, it is simply that conjestion has made them
combine/share a common area of skin. I have seen this slowly happen .
I strongly suspect that more could be gleaned by learning if the twin fruits
share a stone or whether each half has its own. In human biology, a shared
seed results in identical twins. (Do your fruits finish each others'
sentences?! :~ )) ) Presumably, in fruit, this implies fertilisation of a
single flower? Not at all sure.

Sorry this isn't a lot of help. If you learn the answer to your question,
I'd be fascinated to know.
Regards,
Spider