Can anyone shed any light on a little mystery? At the bottom of my garden are two large plum trees. They never have much fruit, but what they do have tastes great. I already know that they have canker (lots of gooey sap leaking from the branches), but this year I have noticed that although there are some small plums beggining to form, most of the branches seem to be growing pods (very much like a pea pod) which contain what look like peas! Does anyone know what this might be?

Tell me this, are those pea pods forming in place of a fruit or are
they deformed and enlarged leaves?
I have a plum which sometimes produces big pods in place of some of
the fruit. I never had them have pea-like structures inside though.
If you have enlarged fruit, do a web search for "plum pockets" and
see if you find anything familiar.
If you have deformed leaves, I would guess it is some sort of gall
forming insect. In that case, you should find a little worm
developing inside the structures that look like peas.
Let us know.

Steve


Trinity wrote:
Can anyone shed any light on a little mystery? At the bottom of my
garden are two large plum trees. They never have much fruit, but what
they do have tastes great. I already know that they have canker (lots
of gooey sap leaking from the branches), but this year I have noticed
that although there are some small plums beggining to form, most of the
branches seem to be growing pods (very much like a pea pod) which
contain what look like peas! Does anyone know what this might be?
--
Trinity
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posted via www.GardenBanter.co.uk

In article , Steve wrote:
Tell me this, are those pea pods forming in place of a fruit or are
they deformed and enlarged leaves?
I have a plum which sometimes produces big pods in place of some of
the fruit. I never had them have pea-like structures inside though.
If you have enlarged fruit, do a web search for "plum pockets" and
see if you find anything familiar.

We had something odd when broccoli and lima beans were planted next to
one another. Apparently they cross-fertilized (I would have thought
they'd be genetically too far apart??). The lima beans produced a
whole bunch of leafy-looking things instead of proper pods -- yes,
they did grow from the flowers that would normally make pods. Very
strange. Only after the broccoli were pretty much done for the year
did the limas start making real bean pods.

And the broccoli made lots of clumps of little leaves instead of
proper heads, then would have blooming parts loosely mixed in with
that. (It was supposed to be head-type broccoli, not the fluffy kind.)

~REZ~

Rez wrote:


We had something odd when broccoli and lima beans were planted next to
one another. Apparently they cross-fertilized (I would have thought
they'd be genetically too far apart??)....................

I can assure you that they are. It was a coincidence.

Steve

In article , Steve wrote:


Rez wrote:


We had something odd when broccoli and lima beans were planted next to
one another. Apparently they cross-fertilized (I would have thought
they'd be genetically too far apart??)....................
I can assure you that they are. It was a coincidence.

So I'd thought, but to look at 'em you'da swore they were trying to
have each other's babies

What was that weird and useless cross someone once did, radish and
cabbage? I vaguely recall it results in a plant that's all bolt and no
nut (grows a seed head but w/o any useful edible parts).

~REZ~

Rez wrote:

What was that weird and useless cross someone once did, radish and
cabbage? I vaguely recall it results in a plant that's all bolt and no
nut (grows a seed head but w/o any useful edible parts).

~REZ~

I didn't hear about that one. Radish and cabbage are certainly close
enough to be crossed. Radish seed pods are very edible and I have
heard they are great in stir fry recipes. Perhaps they were trying
for bigger, better seed pods but it didn't work out.

Suppose the world worked differently than it does and you could
actually cross broccoli and lima beans. The cross wouldn't change
the appearance of either parent plant. Pollen of one would fertilize
the other and nothing would look different until the resulting seeds
were grown and the new hybrid would appear. (I just have to wonder
what that plant would look like!)

Steve

Mmmm... limocolli. Other varieties to try are onea (onion x pea) and
spinots (spinach x carrots). Didn't think you had room for corn? Try
cotato (corn x potato) -- keep in mind it's a heavy feeder.


Steve wrote in message ...

Suppose the world worked differently than it does and you could
actually cross broccoli and lima beans.

In article , Steve wrote:


Rez wrote:

What was that weird and useless cross someone once did, radish and
cabbage? I vaguely recall it results in a plant that's all bolt and no
nut (grows a seed head but w/o any useful edible parts).
I didn't hear about that one. Radish and cabbage are certainly close
enough to be crossed. Radish seed pods are very edible and I have
heard they are great in stir fry recipes. Perhaps they were trying
for bigger, better seed pods but it didn't work out.

It was one of those "Because we can" crosses that biologists make. One
of my gradeschool texts (back in the 1960s) used it as sortof an
example of how NOT to produce new foodstuffs -- the result has neither
usefuls roots nor tops, it's just scruffy seedy stuff that greatly
resembles an ordinary weed.

Suppose the world worked differently than it does and you could
actually cross broccoli and lima beans. The cross wouldn't change
the appearance of either parent plant. Pollen of one would fertilize
the other and nothing would look different until the resulting seeds
were grown and the new hybrid would appear. (I just have to wonder
what that plant would look like!)

So I would expect, unless this was the result of trying to grow seeds
anyway without proper fertilization, having mistaken the neighbouring
pollen for the real thing I know plants can get strange-looking in
various states of haploid vs diploid vs ... etc. What the lima beans
grew instead of pods didn't look like any pod I've ever seen. I should
have taken pictures!!

Or maybe it just had one of those spastic years like grass has -- ever
seen that, where suddely all the lawn grass has weird hairy fluffy
seed heads instead of normal seed heads? I haven't seen that happen
since 1974. Trash bamboo does the same thing -- blooms worldwide only
once every decade or so (last seen ca. 1992).

~REZ~