greengage tree

[captainhastings]

Hi have a tree at the end of my plot and the last few years it has had 2 or 3 fruit which just disappear. This year I may have 6 and they are still there. It was there when i took the plot on but i didn't know what it was until now. It has got quite tall maybe 12 feet and it spreading out on the track so I will need to cut it back. It has never had any sort of maintenance is has stingers around the bottom. What would be the best things to do to get a good crop of fruit next year ?

[nickdub]

Fruit trees like rich feed, particularly plums - so manure. Best to hoe or cut off any weeds grass growing under it first.

Cutting plum trees back is risky because of silver leaf disease, especially sawing large branches - if you have to cut, do it now, well the tree is growing vigorously - its sometimes possible to bend a branch that is in the way, round and tie it in another position as an alternative.

Cropping is a matter of getting the tree big enough and having another plum nearby as a suitable pollinator. Best to have a look round the area when your tree is in flower - not many gages will set a decent crop on their own.

Spring frosts when the flowers are open can be a problem - not much you can do about it though but it can be an explanation of poor crops some years, even if everything else is right.

[captainhastings]

ah thank you I like the bending branches option good idea. Sadly it is the only plum there so am i stuffed unless I get another tree

[nickdub]

ah thank you I like the bending branches option good idea. Sadly it is the only plum there so am i stuffed unless I get another tree

Don't despair on the isolation of your plum - bees fly fair distances, really nice warm weather (65+) for a few hours at flowering time is really the key. One way of helping is to beg a small cutting from another tree in flower somewhere and putting it in a bottle of water near your tree to provide the necessary pollen.

One problem with plums particularly is that they flower only for a few days, and different varieties flower at different times . The old books on gardening gave flowering time planners, so you could pick ones which matched one another.

[captainhastings]

looks like I came to the right place thanks for your advice

[nickdub]

No worries - hope it works out for you - patience and optimism are key ingredients to growing tree fruit - now if only I can find a practical way of stopping the bloody birds from eating all the cherries :-)

[captainhastings]

Would it be worth trying to air lay a branch to get a second tree ? Just saw it mentioned on gardeners world

[nickdub]

There are various ways of propagating plums, obviously named varieties need to be cloned as they do not come true from seed. On a nursery scale, as you probably know, budding is the traditional answer and this means the ultimate size of the tree can be controlled by the choice of root-stock. You can and I have done this as a DIY challenge, but expect some disappointments as its a bit fiddly, and of course you need a suitable root-stock tree to work with.

Another method is to get a second plum tree in a pot and do "approach grafting" - this is generally easier then budding but much slower - I've done it with apples but not plums yet.

Finally I have grown plums by taking cuttings in the normal way - you will lose a lot, but I've grown a couple of trees like this - you will of course get a tree from this on its own roots and it may grow to a considerable size 60+ ft would be a guesstimate.

"air-layering" is a bit of a fiddle and only usually used for really tricky to propagate shrubs. It would quite likely work but you need a reasonable structure to take the weight - if you say put a whippy branch through a pot of compost and then wrapped that in cling film - I'd probably support it on a tripod of canes - you'd find it would take at least a year and you'd need to keep the compost moist when the tree was growing - I'd say one of the other methods is easier.

[BUFFS]

[QUOTE=nickdub;1543697]No worries

I have given up on my cherry tree, after over a decade of getting only a few fruit, netting done away with as all it seemed to do was trap birds, blackfly chewing it to bits each year, enough, so out it came from its place in the back garden soil, the area, about six foot square was covered with weed membrane and then chipped bark, so ever the optimist, I have a five foot olive tree, in a pot so it can go into the back greenhouse when winter rain replaces warm summer rain, with dahlias, fuschias and arum lillies around the olive it looks okay and the yard looks tidy, for once, picked more peaches and raspberries and enjoyed a sunny day..

[nickdub]

I haven't had problems growing cherries - picking them before the birds and squirrels has been the issue for me.

My innate laziness is in conflict with my liking for fruit. We shall see, I may yet hit on something which will let me enjoy a small part of the crop. I'm currently putting in a large poly-tunnel and a couple of little trees will go in there.

Your garden sounds excellent - I have a few peaches on an outside tree and 5 apricots on a little inside one - possible I shall get to enjoy some of these :-)

[Mark_Riga]

I put up a poly-tunnel last year and put a nectarine in last winter. I read you should take all the buds off in the first year but it was a big tree with lots of roots so I hand pollinated it and left it to it. A few weeks ago, I noticed it was listing to one side so I tied up all its branches. It had about 90 small fruit about 50 to 60 grams each so about 5kg in all. They taste delicious and there are still about 10 left on the tree - and 12 in the kitchen.
Will be interesting to see how it does next year - whether I get a repeat performance or whether it will be knackered.

[nickdub]

Sounds like a pretty good result - don't forget to feed your tree - eg liquid feed or compost round the roots.

I had 5 full size apricots on a young tree in a poly-tunnel this year - predictably something, probably a mouse, got in and polished them off as they were starting to ripen :-(

My "garden" is a bit like a cross between a wildlife jungle and a scrapyard, so I get what I deserve I suppose.

[Mark_Riga]

Sounds a bit like my garden, I'm waiting for some gypsies to come round to take away the scrapyard bit - but been waiting for more than 10 years now.

[GBax]

Gages are tricky pollination wise - it maybe lacking a partner required to get a decent crop

[captainhastings]

Well the fruit crept up on me and I noticed about a dozen but they all looked like this



I did noticed the odd dead branch lower down