Advice on Plums-

...for my "know-it-all, do NOTHING" neighbor.

Hi, Folks!

I am a "Stranger in Paradise" on THIS Forum---NOT on DG!.

I do not grow any fruit trees or hardly any Vegetables. However, my Spanish neighbor thinks he is God's gift on Earth when it comes to trees of any kind. He messes around with them, pruning, grafting, winter wraps on his HUGE Fig Tree, etc. but he has NO clue about spraying and fertilizing. I can bet you that he has NEVER fertilized anything! He will not take any advice on anything, because HE knows it all! Well--he does not! And he admits he won't read any books or pamphlets I am willing to offer him, yet he fusses every year that all his plums set, and then fall off the tree and become food for birds and squirrels. He also has a dwarf Peach and Pear tree.

Anyway--I digress......

I do not know the name of this Plum he has. It is a small tree, maybe 12' tall and wide. It is many, many years old--maybe 25??? The Plums are small. About 11/2" in diameter, greenish with an peach/reddish color if they ever get to ripen. From the few bites I have had (biting around the pecked holes on the fallen fruit) they are very delicious. The flesh is also a peach color.

I have told him many times (and have given up) that he needs to spray the tree about 4-5 times with Orchard Spray, starting when the bloom is opening. He never has, but decided to do it twice this year, even though much later. Maybe late than never???
I do not know if the "harvest" will be better or not. I alredy see a lot of plums on the ground.....

The tree sets an abundance of fruit. They are all crowded together on the branches. While they are still green, but growing, they start falling off the tree. I know he should thin them. Often they have a small fungusy spot at the end away from the stem. There is definitely some kind of fungus/disease/rot that affects these fruit every year. He pruned the tree nicely this Spring. It is open and well branched. It is in a small flower bed (also ignored) so tne lawn chemicals (they have Lawn service) of any kind really get to it--but they could. The bed is not all THAT big! I will sneak out and take some pictures so I can post them here to help the kind souls that will take the time to answer.

If anyone could give any advice (or Hyperlinks) to what he needs to do re fertilizing, spraying (with WHAT?) and general care, I will waste my printer ink to print it out and pass it on to him. Whether he does anything or not is anyones guess. AHHH, PRIDE!!! What price HUMILITY?????

Thank you! I really like these people and we are good neighbors! I want to help.........

Gita

Picture #1--the entire tree--well pruned.

Here's a close-up of a bunch of the Plums on a branch.

Here's a close-up of some of the Plums showing damage while still on the branches.
By now, my neighbor was outside with me wondering what I was doing. I told him I am asking the "World" for advice. He helped me with some of the photos---holding the fruit properly so I could take a picture.

This photo is of a typical Plum showing sap oozing out of the "hole" (???) in it's bottom. It was clear sap....probably just the sugar from the fruit.

Here is a bunch of the fallen Plums I picked out of the Lawn.

Last one!!!!

This cluster of Plums on the tree seem to be healthy-------so far????

Pleas post any help you can! Thanks! GIta

I admit I don't know a whole lot about plums, but I have a peach tree that has the same behavior (the give-away was the sores on the wood part of the branch in your first close-up picture). I researched & diagnosed it as 'brown rot' - a fungus infection that apparently can also affect plums. The recommended treatment is a sulfur-based fungicide. Apparently it hides pretty well for the winter in the bark, in the fallen fruit, & around the base of the tree.

So I would suggest picking up all fallen fruit and spraying well - trunk, branches & all - with a sulphur fungicide, based on what I've read. This is my first year trying to cure my peach (it was a volunteer from a tossed pit and ignored for several years), so I can't give you details on how effective it is. From what I gather, it's a pretty persistant fungus, so it might take a few years to beat it.

Gita, the first plum in your hand has the bite of the plum curculio, a kind of weevil. The curc bites the plum and lays an egg, and the baby grub eats to the center and eats the seed and causes the fruit to abort and thus drop. This is not a fungus problem; it is a good idea to spray sulphur for brown rot as a preventative, but that is not the current problem. If he wants some plums he will need to spray starting when the plums are small through when they are bigger than quarter sized.

The second plum with the ooze has been hit by the Oriental Fruit Moth. Crack it open and you will find a worm inside. This worm may not cause the fruit to drop but the plum will have worm tracks all through it by the time it is ripe. You also need to spray to prevent these guys, and you need to spray all summer. Painful, eh?

One alternative solution is to bag the blemish-free fruits when they are small. I am experimenting with this approach on my plum trees this year, I am not willing to spray poisons all summer long in my yard where my kids play. I am using cotton bags this year; other people use ziploks with the corners cut off to let some air in. Another alternative is an organic clay called Kaolin, brand name Surround, which you can buy on the Internet. It will prevent enough damage that you will get a harvest, but you also need to spray all summer long.

Scott

I believe in the things you posted Backyardzoo. However I think you must be very careful about sulphur sprays except in very dilute mixtures once the plant leafs out. Also there are copper sprays too. careful there too.

Indy,
Thanks for the tip. Like I said, this is a first for me on a volunteer tree so I'm kinda guessing here. I've only put on one good dose this year (I am currently playing 'mommy' to 5 kids from 2-7 yrs, so my time is sparse & sporatic...When my brother & his 3 move back out of my house I might get a more regular schedule..) Far as I can tell, it neither helped nor harmed the tree. This was about 3-4 weeks ago, but we've had a lot of rain since. Is another coat a good idea? I don't really care about the peaches this year. But I'd like to get the tree 'healed' so there's a chance of some fruit eventually. And should I try spraying the local wild plums, too? I didn't know the dilution rate of the sulphur I got until I'd ordered, so I've got PLENTY ;-)

Scott,

Thanks for your insight. I will print out yours, and other's, helpful ideas and pass it on to my neighbor. But--like I said in my original post, I know he will not do anything much about it.

Is there anything that can be sprayed on the plums so the Moths won't bite them?

About the bagging the fruits. Do you mean you put a bag over the entire branch with the plums on it? Would it affect the plums if they do not get any light? How about old pantyhose? Nothing will eat through them!

What part of baltimore do you live in? I am in Perry Hall.

Thanks, Gita


Backyardzoo--
I went out and took a picture of a stem, since you mentioned the sores you saw. Seems to me a lot of fruit trees have very rough, scabby branches. Just the way they are... I may be totally wrong here also.

Anyway, here's the picture. I tried to lighten it up, but you still cannot see much as this is under the tree's canopy.

Huh. Your's aren't weepy like mine. Those look pretty clean, so they might be a natural formation of the tree. Mine are oozing sap that reminds me of the way a bad poison ivy rash will when you scratch the tops off. In short, it looks awful.

I'd try for a picture today, but it's raining to the point I'm about to start looking around for an ark and animals by twos..maybe in a few days when I won't sink to my knees in mud if I walk in my yard.

I don't like to give unsolicited advice, so I will address Backyard zoo's concerns. Sulphur and copper compounds are fungicides. Primarily for fruit rot but also help with foliar diseases. Wont help with the insect problem. The plum curculio and Oriental fruit moth can be controlled with regular application of home orchard spray. All of these will be a constant battle, they are persistant where established. If your bark is oozing sap, you most likely have peach borers (they also attack plums) which will kill the tree if left unchecked. These require a different insecticide and a different spray schedule.
http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville/disease_month/brownrot98.html
http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville/pest_month/insectfocusmay98.htm
http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville/pest_month/insectfocusaugu.html
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2043.html

For a volunteer, this tree sure is expensive! :-)

Gita, that branch is showing the effects of the cicadas that came two summers ago -- that limb looks to be around three years old and the damage looks like cicada scars.

The Surround that I mentioned helps keep the bugs from biting, the clay annoys them. But you need to have a coat of clay on all the time or you will lose.

People that bag put one bag over each fruit. That is a lot of work for plums; I only bagged a third of my plums this year. Bagging plums is not common, most people bagging fruit are bagging apples which are bigger and more worth the effort.

Basically, growing plums here is difficult, there is no getting around that. If you buy plums at the farmers market here, you can bet that they were doused in poisons all summer long.

I am in north Baltimore, Mount Washington if you have heard of that.

Scott

Farmerdill,

Thank you for all the hyperlinks on this!

Please feel free to offer "unasked for advice". Even though this is not MY problem, I am learning from all this. I will run some of this by my neighbor, and if he still has no intent on doing anything, I will not waste my printer ink. Too bad he does not have a computer so I could just forward all this to him.

If this was MY tree, I would just cut down the thing and be done! There is a dwarf Peach tree right next to the PLum tree. I'll ask him if this also has any priblems.

Question:
Our street is lined with Kwanzan Cherry trees. They are all now over 30 years old. Many are in different stages of decline, while some others are healthy and robust.
The ones in front od my home--all the main trunks/branches are totally hollow and serve as safe nesting places for birds and their broods. They have been using these hollow holes for this for years. Kind of like a bird Condo. Used to be only one Sparrow that "ranted" a certain hole. This year, a starling has also set up housekeeping.

What causes all the stems to become hollow? The tree seems to be OK in spite of it and blooms beautifully every Spring.

Thanks again, Gita

Gitagal, the plums look like that is a green gage plum tree. I thought we had one. At least that is what I ordered once upon a time. Until this year (4th?) the plums would drop. Now the tree is loaded and they seem to be blue!!!! Maybe it is my view from my bedroom window. I am confined with a back problem. I will have surgery on July 10 and soon after that I expect to be back into the garden to see if they really are blue.