Our 3 year old plum tree bloomed and is producing plums for the first time this year! We were too excited to finally be getting plums. However, the plums while still green are all falling off!! My husband is freaking out!! We read fruit trees often purge themselves when they are producing too much fruit. We've lost so many green plums there are few left on the tree. Too little water is not the problem either. Help ASAP with possible solutions those who have experienced this problem. Thanks Gardenstew!!!
Yes plum trees will drop excess fruit if too many. Do the plums that fall look ok or do they have damage.
The fallen plums appear to have little bites of some kind on them. Haven't seen any insects on the tree though.
My peach tree did that last year. And also had little marks on them. Mart (and others) recommended a spraying solution. Not sure if it's the same for plums, but if it is, she'll let you know about it.
gsdruth, What kind of plum do you have? Plums, to my knowledge, are a little easier than most fruit trees to get a crop, but they need a spray for insects just as the petals drop. You could have the sawfly damage there. They lay their egg on the flower and when the egg hatched it burrows into the fruit and kills it. Hopefully you will still get a crop this year. Next year you may want to be prepared to spray the day you see the petals start dropping from the tree. You could take a damaged fruit to your local extension office and have them identify what the problem is, too. Be diligent to clean up all the dropped fruits and dispose of them. Same thing in the fall...Clean up all the debris under the tree and burn or bag it, put it to the road and keep it cleaned up.
Thanks Carolyn. I hope we sprayed in time to save the crop. Next year for sure we will definitely be prepared. We destroyed the fallen fruit and check daily for more. Wish us luck!
GSD... read through this topic that I posted a couple of years ago. http://www.gardenstew.com/about25840.html And knowing your hubby, he'll do some comparison research. You may need a broad spectrum fungicide/insecticide either store bought or mix your own.
