Thinning plums

[kentvegplot]

Both of my Victoria plum trees are full of fruit - if just 25% come to full size, I shall be eating plums forever (and the trees will probably break some branches too)

How soon should I begin thinning? And do plums suffer from the 'June drop' like apples (I've not noticed it before, but I may just have not been paying attention )

[starloc]

I have never thinned fruit, some people say to and some say not to, i believe the tree will chuck them off if it wants to drop the fruit, they do the june drop themselves,

a recent university study has even shown that fruit and flowers on a newly planted tree has no effect on the root or branch development so its best to leave them to sort themselves out as well

If the branches start to droop i `maypole` the tree, by adding a long cane/stake in the , and run wires from the center pole to the drooping branches to suport them from above the tree

[FB.]

My Vic has just about completed her drop, but she only dropped about 20% of fruitlets, although a third of the remainder look a bit too small for her to want to hang onto them for the full season.
If you feel the need, remove damaged, crowded, small or mis-shapen fruits.
I find that since my Vic is a lone tree and part-self-fertile, that after I've removed the quarter or so that get pest-damaged during the season, I get a good, regular crop every year.
Sometimes, biennial flowering can result from simply too much blossom, regardless of whether you allow fruits to grow to maturity. I've experienced this myself, where I young fruit trees flowered so much that I de-fruited them within a few weeks of blossom time (apple, pear and plum). But they still didn't flower the next year.