Plum Tree question

[Denim Deb]

Not sure. When I worked on the farm, it was apples and peaches. They had started trying a few other fruits, like pears and cherries, but didn't have many. And, even w/the apples, you needed to prune them differently for certain varieties. I pruned more peach trees than apple-there were more peaches than apples on the farm. I did a lot of work w/the young trees, heading them off, then pruning them as they got older. Some days, I miss it.

 

[~gd]

Not sure. When I worked on the farm, it was apples and peaches. They had started trying a few other fruits, like pears and cherries, but didn't have many. And, even w/the apples, you needed to prune them differently for certain varieties. I pruned more peach trees than apple-there were more peaches than apples on the farm. I did a lot of work w/the young trees, heading them off, then pruning them as they got older. Some days, I miss it.

Well I looked it up, Plums have a terminal bud and only ONE Side bud so they are more like peaches than Apples as far as fruiting goes and they normally Lose 1/2 their fruits before being ripe.
BTW I know what you mean about how things have changed in the fruit farming in the last few years. New orchards look more like vineyards than the orchards we used to tend both the pruning and picking is now done by machines and the trees are now much smaller, and 2 dimensional rather than 3 dimensions. a mechanical picker now moves down the rolls for the fruit. The pruner now removes all the shoots that are outside the plane of the rolls and tops the tree si it doesn't get too tall. Many of the trees my father planted are at their peak and wil soon be reolaced by the new trees.

 

[Denim Deb]

I think that depends on the area and the size of the farm. None of the farms around here are that big, and even the new orchards are still put in the "old" way. And, they still use human workers for picking the fruit.

 

[pinkfox]

op, sounds pretty normal for plums...ive never seen plum orchards here in the US, but in the UK, you tend to see plumtres with various bits of wood sticking out of the ground around them to support the branches as they fruit...they fruit neer the ends of new growth and get so heavy that without support they just break so most folks with plum trees make crutches for the branches to rest on when in full fruit.

 

[Denim Deb]

I've seen them wrap plastic straps around peach trees that start to split. It would hold the tree together long enough for the fruit to mature. But, it wasn't unusual after the strap was taken off to lose part, if not all of the tree.