I have a plum tree that is in full bloom. It's fruit is vary large reddish
yellow plums 3" long when ripe. Usually, it gets a dozen or two fruit on it, but
one year I harvested 80 pounds of plums from it.

Here in Seattle, the spring has been cold and damp. There is no sign of any
bees. I am wondering if there is some way of pollinating the tree manually,
perhaps be tapping a branch from my neighbor's small fruit plum or my italian
prune trees against it's blooms. Does anyone have any knowledge about this they
could assist me with?

Bob F wrote:
I have a plum tree that is in full bloom. It's fruit is vary large
reddish yellow plums 3" long when ripe. Usually, it gets a dozen or
two fruit on it, but one year I harvested 80 pounds of plums from it.

Here in Seattle, the spring has been cold and damp. There is no sign
of any bees. I am wondering if there is some way of pollinating the
tree manually, perhaps be tapping a branch from my neighbor's small
fruit plum or my italian prune trees against it's blooms. Does anyone
have any knowledge about this they could assist me with?

Plums are almost always pollinated by bees, there is little or no wind
pollination apparently. Some are self fertile, others are not and some in
between. The other trees might or might not be a pollinator for yours. I
don't know how you are going to transfer the pollen at the right time as the
flowers don't reach maturity simultaneously, although the numbers are on
your side as you only need a little pollen on each flower and only a small
proportion need to be pollinated to get a good crop.

David

David Hare-Scott wrote:
Bob F wrote:
I have a plum tree that is in full bloom. It's fruit is vary large
reddish yellow plums 3" long when ripe. Usually, it gets a dozen or
two fruit on it, but one year I harvested 80 pounds of plums from it.

Here in Seattle, the spring has been cold and damp. There is no sign
of any bees. I am wondering if there is some way of pollinating the
tree manually, perhaps be tapping a branch from my neighbor's small
fruit plum or my italian prune trees against it's blooms. Does anyone
have any knowledge about this they could assist me with?

Plums are almost always pollinated by bees, there is little or no wind
pollination apparently. Some are self fertile, others are not and
some in between. The other trees might or might not be a pollinator
for yours. I don't know how you are going to transfer the pollen at
the right time as the flowers don't reach maturity simultaneously,
although the numbers are on your side as you only need a little
pollen on each flower and only a small proportion need to be
pollinated to get a good crop.

I talked to a nursery person at a nearby garden store and was told that using a
flowering branch, tapping the tree branches can polinate plums, and that most
are self poninateing. I'll try it on part of the tree and see what happens.