big problem with plums!

[vcsggl]

Hello - just discovered your site and it looks excellent. Hope someone can help - just noticed today some serious problems with my plums - variety of tress , some young some old. All seem to have seriously distorted fruit - far larger than they should be this time of year, flattened, curled and distorted and no stone in them. They look rather like a badly distorted small pea pod, hollow inside and no trace of a stone. So far as I can see about 6 different trees are affected and every single fruit seems to have been affected. These have been healthy productive tress 'til now!
Any ideas please??
George

[bazzaboy]

George, Welcome to the Vine, sorry no-one’s got back to you yet. I'm NOT a professional but will have a bash... but would advise you get a pro to inspect on site a.s.a.p. as could be serious and spreading. Also if any spraying is to be a solution you'll need professional help because availability, precautions etc seem to be constantly changing under EU legislation so amateur advice and books can all too easily be out of date....

I do have a few plums trees and have occasionally lost one... but never to the symptoms you're describing. As you probably realise, plums can be fickle, with luck it might mean you've just lost their crop for this year only, but if it's more serious better to get it sorted immediately. So lots of questions… I take it you've closely inspected for insects, fungi, mould, "sticky stuff", damage by birds etc? What state are the leaves in – normal/healthy or scorched looking? It’s a bud/blossom condition but whether local (e.g. weather) or viral difficult to say without additional evidence. Where are you located? Have you had unusually damp weather or frosts recently? If 6 trees have this problem how many adjacent plum trees don't have it? Are the affected ones all in a group or scattered? Affecting some of both old and younger trees? If they either have it totally or don't have it at all that sounds systemic and needs sorting a.s.a.p.

I live in a (former) fruit growing area.... if it's pos to post a photo I'll happily go to the pub (what a sacrifice! ) and see if any of the old pros can recognise it and advise.... Meantime it might be worth your while checking Google IMAGE for “plum disease” “tree fruit problems” etc - needless to say there are several to choose from... - to see if you can locate a pic that fits… Get it named/diagnosed and the battle’s half won!

bb.

[vcsggl]

Thanks bb - I've identified the problem - it's called plum pocket or pocket plum! It's caused by the same fungus family as peach leaf curl. It seems it only appears occasionaly i.e. just because it's appeared this year doesn't mean I'm stuck with it. The RHS advice site says that there's no cure but I've found several sites in the USA that recommend spraying in the late autumn/ winter with Bordeaux mixture or one of the fungicides used for peach leaf curl. I must say that I've given up trying to grow outdoor peaches here - even though I've got great south-facing stone walls the peaches I've planted get devastated every year - and I spray several times with a variety of fungicides. The warm wet west is no place for outdoor peaches it seems - and plum pocket seems to like it here too!

George