Pity 'pon poor plum...

...tree. :>(

Hopefully it won't be time to cry Rest In Peace but won't know 'til I get out the saw and cut one of my babies back, way back!

Some of our trees were really weakened by the big ice storm (past December). And perhaps because of the severe winter it also contributed to a very heavy fruit production. The limbs were really bowing down low with fruit, then we had a big T-storm with high winds, and that was all she wrote!

Some of the plums are finishing ripening, so will wait a few days to observe them further. Maybe just the little bit of attachment to the main part of the tree is enuff for them to ripen (altho I doubt they'll get to full size).

At the very worse, I guess the chickens will be eating good, eh? ô¿ô

Horseshoe....that really IS HEARTBREAKING!!!! Do you suppose that if you had done some "culling"...the damage would not have been so severe? I am so sorry! There isn't much you can do when Mother Nature throws a tantrum. A couple of times, when my apple tree was so full of fruit that the branches were hanging very low DH gave the branches support with board stilts (like a clothesline pole that holds up the clothsline....only broader.)

I considered that, hedandan, then decided to see if the tree would "self-thin" then fruit. I'm sure the supports would've helped but just can't say...that storm/winds that came thru knocked branches out of several trees (poplar).

The other fruit trees are pretty well loaded too, altho not bowing down as heavily. I reckon the pears, peaches, and figs will make up for the loss of plums.

oh my, sorry to hear about your plum tree :(
I wish I was in your neck of the woods right about now with all that fruit growing.........lol

I wish you luck with the plum tree :)

I seem to loose a large portion of the fruit from my Methly plum every year to storms. They ripen just at that time. My branches hang low in some places - I thin as high as I can reach on a 6 foot ladder but that leaves about half the tree out of reach. We thought of stretching an old sheet under the tree and then shaking the branches to get the high ones before they could fall this year. We were planning that for this weekend, so guess what the weather did this week? At least I harvested and froze about 4 gallons of fruit during the last couple of weeks.

My fruit trees have a huge fruit set this year.Even my apple trees,that haven't had a dozen apples between them are bending over.I thought they'd naturally thin themselves too,but it hasn't seemed to help much.

The Kiefer pear is in about the same shape it was in year before last when most of the branches broke from the weight...and I hand picked over 300 pears off the size of golfballs...and it still broke.That pear tree is the single most productive plant I've ever owned...everything else is pretty much under the learning curve so to speak.

We had a misrable winter here too...lots of ice and snow and colder temps than usual.That may be what promped the apple trees to produce.The last few winters haven't been much,and they might have needed it.

Well, at this point I'm wondering what I can do with lots of semi-green plums. Gree plum jelly? A few of them are turning reddish colored so maybe we'll get a few snacks from them.

Mel, my pears are fully loaded also. Not much going on with the apples tho, but then they've never really produced and are the same age as the other trees. Reckon it's time to beat them with a garden hose or something.

Just a final update...
I'd wanted to wait and see if the plums (which were green at the time the limbs broke) would ripen. YEP! They did. Glad I didn't cut the branches off, I would've lost a lot of plums! (Course now, the squirrels are also sharing them with me!)
So, lesson learned, when the branches break, leave the fruit to ripen b4 you begin your surgery on the tree.

Can see the ripe fruit better in this one...

makes me think about the yummy plum tart my mom used to make :)

So what did you end up doing with the plums?

*gulp*...Well...:>)

...We ate many of them to our hearts content from both trees(the broken one as well as a non-broken one). Then, when the squirrels finished off the last of the peaches and moved to the plums, I kept up with some "target practice" on a daily basis. Never ended up making any plum preserves, freezing any or anything...they just became bait to bring in the numerous squirrels.

The good part is that I've thinned the squirrels down so much that I feel safe once again to put in a late crop of corn. (Squirrels were also getting more of our corn than we were every year, so I quit growing it for quite a few yrs here. Would grow in on some land north of town.) So, wish me luck...and just hope the pesky varmints don't move to the pear trees next!

I was just wondering how squirrel cans or freezes? Or squirrel gravy, much like your possum gravy....squirrel stew, or what about squirrel stroganoff, squirrel pie, etc...all kinds of possibilities....And now that you've thinned them, how will you find the nuts this winter. :)

HAH!...Well, I've canned rabbit meat before, guess Squirrel can't be too much different!

As for this winter, the nuts can be where they lay. I bet I'll have more squirrels this winter to pick from for squirrel sauce piquante tho. Them things breed like rabbits! (tree rabbits!)

Shoe, are you really Jed Clampett? :)

♫ Come an' listen to mah story 'bout a man named Jed...♫

ô¿ô

Shoe,

Not to change the mood of this wonderful topic....Squirrel pie maybe with Pears on top!

But, on a more technical note, do I need a pollinator for my apricot or Indian blood peach? I thought I saw some semblance of fruit -swollen flowers -staring on the peach this year, but all fell off. I did not see anything on the young apricot. I have 2 nectarines that are little and I have one with fruit (maybe 11) and the other had one delicious neck on it YUMMM. But my poor ol beaten plum along with the 2 year old apricot and peach, nadda.... Any suggestions? Thoughts??

Yummmy~! :>)

Concerning the trees, there are certain varieties of plums, apricots, and peaches that are self-fertile. Do you remember the names of the ones you have, Jul? I'm not familiar with Indian blood peach.

By the way, are your trees dwarf or standards? That would also be a factor as to when your trees should start producing fruit. (Usually dwarfs will produce at a younger age than standards.)

The Apricot is a Goldmine semi-dwarf and the Indian Blood Peach is also a semi-dwarf.

The Apricot is very small and has the main branch pruned up about 5 feet. Sparce on the brahches. I have to constantly prune the suckers.(not sure why)

The Peach is lush and about 7 feet tall and about as wide. Very healthy looking. I made sure that I pruned it acording to Peach tree instructions. Well...lets hope I did.

My plum is an I-don't-know that was here and is old. The bark has a pulled away look to it. I was told by some tree friends of my neighbor, that maybe I din't beat it enough last year, so they did an indian dance to see if that would help. We didn't have any fruit stay on the plum again. Seems like we only have had about 20 one year and it seems like a Santa Rosa type.

Here is a picture of the bark of the plum. Not sure if anyone can tell by this. I get lots of small fruit and then they all fall off. Very frustrating. Thanks.