Plum Tree Mystery

[C.Read]

I've got two good size plum trees in my yard. They sit right on the property line next to the county road. I've lived here for ~8 years now and every year these trees have produced a bumper crop of plums....except this year. Usually the plums are ripe and ready in mid July but this year they produced maybe 10 plums total and lost all of their leaves early. This got me wondering what could have caused them to do this. Rewind to last year. The county came in and cut a ditch between my property line (where the plum trees are) and the county road. So I figured this had something to do with them not producing and perhaps even killing them. However, one of the trees began to bloom and now has leaves coming back on it which has me bumfuzzled.

[bowhuntntxn]

Plum trees are fairly short lived and could be starting to die. Also cutting through the roots of them could have hurt them also. They make excellent wood for smoking meats when they finally die.

[markm]

Maybe when they dug they cut alot of the root system which caused the trees not to get enough water. No water = no fruit and losing their leaves is common when they go into shock. We planted 3 red oaks this spring. One didn't get water for 4 days and dropped all of the leaves. We thought we lost it, but lots of water and 2 weeks later a new batch of leaves.

[Chuey]

my plum tree is not doing so well i thought maybe the freez last year killed it.

[Draco]

Having no fruit is a result of stress caused by getting so little water last year and may be why it's off on it's leaf set as well.

[C.Read]

**ALMOST 6 YEARS LATER**

These trees are still alive but still aren't producing fruit like they were. Every year since I started this thread both trees put out maybe a dozen plums together. Very strange.

[hog_down]

Maybe try fertilizer?

[JayB]

6 years and little fruit...sounds like a recipe for tree replacement....if you are looking for the fruit.

[Snowflake Killa]

My trees are 6 years old and this is the best crop I've ever had and I blamed it on the freeze we had. Plus we had a talk I told them if they didn't produce they would die.

[dbaio1]

We have a couple of different types of wild plums on the farm. The ones that have a little bigger fruit do the exact same thing every few years or so. They seem to bounce back. As notes they do die but they sure seem to regenerate on their own too.

[C.Read]

My trees are 6 years old and this is the best crop I've ever had and I blamed it on the freeze we had. Plus we had a talk I told them if they didn't produce they would die.

Currently headed to the house to give both of them death threats.....

[lovemylegacy]

I've got two good size plum trees in my yard. They sit right on the property line next to the county road. I've lived here for ~8 years now and every year these trees have produced a bumper crop of plums....except this year. Usually the plums are ripe and ready in mid July but this year they produced maybe 10 plums total and lost all of their leaves early. This got me wondering what could have caused them to do this. Rewind to last year. The county came in and cut a ditch between my property line (where the plum trees are) and the county road. So I figured this had something to do with them not producing and perhaps even killing them. However, one of the trees began to bloom and now has leaves coming back on it which has me bumfuzzled.

Late frost maybe. Mine did the same thing.

[Briar Friar]

Fertilize, water, and prune. You may not be getting good fruiting wood development. And/or the fruiting wood developing may be drying out and the trees are in preservation mode to the point of self pruning.

If youre getting lots of flowers but few fruit...somewhere the pollination aint happenin and or the plant is self pruning the fruit to focus its energy into a few fruit. It takes alot of energy and carbohydrates for a plant to produce fruit...hence why in the first 3 years of establishment heavy fruit set is detrimental because it diverts resource allocation from root establishment to fruit development.

If youre getting few blooms...prune, fertilize and water to encourage new growth development. I wouldnt suggest fertilizing this late with a potentially needed high nitrogen fertilizer.

It could be that the trees are not getting enough chilling hours for the buds to set for fruiting. Roadways hold more heat and even if enough chilling hours are recieved...radiated wintertime roadway heat will conteract accumulated chilling hours...causing a deleterious effect.