Blossom all gone on plum tree overnight

[Rossa]

We've had quite a bit of wind over the last week and on Saturday I noticed all the blossom has now gone from a plum tree on our new allotment. There's no sign of fruit appearing so could anyone tell me if there is likely to be fruit or if all the blossom has dropped are we out of luck this year? Don't know what variety it is. Very mature tree about 15' tall.

I did prune it a few weeks ago as a lot of upright vertical growth with no blossom on it, only leaves. A neighbour said to cut off those stems so the tree would put its energy into producing fruit. Could that have been a mistake and given the tree a bit of a shock?

Other trees around like the flowering cherries have still got blossom on them and the apple trees on the allotment have only just started to bloom in the last few days.
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"..I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity.." Tom Lehrer

[indigox]

You might still get some fruit, but you'll have to be patient, it'll take a week or two before the tiny young plums begin to appear. If the flowers had been out for a little while already you should be okay, usually the blossoms will only blow away when they are getting ready to drop anyway. Plums generally bloom a bit earlier than apples in my experience.

[FB.]

My Victoria did the same thing a few weeks ago; she dropped all her petals literally overnight and I wondered if a frost, or some other problem had occurred. There are now grain-of-wheat sized tiny plums growing, so all is well. I suspect that yours will be OK, so long as it was pollinated.

[Rossa]

Thanks for that. Will have a closer look tomorrow. A good bed of nettles around the base of the tree at the moment so haven't been able to get too close.....suppose should be cropping the nettles for soup anyway. Best take my marigolds or gardening gloves...lol

[Rob G]

Frost and cold winds are the plum blossom enemy - all the plum family are early flowerers and can all too easily be caught by late frosts. And then a spell of cold weather keeps the pollinators at bay as well. I'm near Edinburgh and suspect that I've lost most of my crop this way this year.

Out of interest what book advised you to prune at this time of the year - I use a pretty old gardening book which tells me to prune when picking the fruit. I would prefer to prune now or in the winter so I can adjust the shape of the tree more easily.

Rob

[starloc]

With plums ive always been told to prune when the tree is in active growth spring/summer , not near the autumn/winter to prevent silverleaf desiese

[Rossa]

It wasn't something in a book RobG, just a neighbour who said it was worth doing.

At the end of most of the branches it had this upright sort of growth about 12-18" with only leaves on it, no blossom. I'm no expert and wasn't sure about doing it but borrowed my Dad's telescopic loppers and had a go. Mid April time. Didn't touch the bits with the blossom on. Blossom was mainly at bud stage. Blossom then came out but disappeared late last week after a windy night.

I've braved the nettles today and had a look to find pea sized fruit there so looks like we might get something from it barring disease, maggots or it just dropping it's fruit without warning one day. Who knows.

Only other thing I did was give it some potash at the same time as the packet said it was best before and after fruiting.
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"..I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity.." Tom Lehrer