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Gardening

My plums are smaller this year

(41 Posts)
Mollygo Tue 03-Aug-21 09:50:49

The plum tree is laden with ripe fruit, but this year a lot of the plums are smaller than usual.
Anyone else experienced this?

JaneJudge Tue 03-Aug-21 14:24:33

our pears are tiny as well smile

Mollygo Tue 03-Aug-21 14:37:12

JaneJudge Our pears are never really big so there doesn’t seem to be much difference this year. They remind me of the ‘children’s packs’ in Asda. They aren’t ripe yet, so there’s time.

JaneJudge Tue 03-Aug-21 14:41:23

yes, ours are like the children's lunchbox ones too smile

JaneJudge Tue 03-Aug-21 14:42:16

and something has gobbled up all of our courgettes. I thought it might be our rather fat, resident hedgehogs but it seems more likely to be rabbits

timetogo2016 Tue 03-Aug-21 14:46:27

Lol,i wish mine were!.

Shandy57 Tue 03-Aug-21 14:47:39

Interesting that you've posted this today, my roofer admired my plums yesterday!

Good point that they are poisonous for dogs, my dog ate some grapes by accident earlier this year and was extremely poorly.

Granny23 Tue 03-Aug-21 14:59:17

I have had a plum tree for years and always understood that you got a good crop every second year, Last year there were so many heavy plums that a couple of branches were torn off during a storm. This year much smaller crop but I expect a bumper crop next year. Fortunately I have a friend whose tree is on a different 2 year cycle so she gets some of my excess (for jam and chutney) one year and repays the favour the next year.

BlueBelle Tue 03-Aug-21 15:01:08

I was inundated with pears last year I have three on my tree this year I think the high winds in late spring blew all the blossom off

Slugs gobble courgettes I think Jane

Jaxjacky Tue 03-Aug-21 15:06:01

Mawbe i have melons in the greenhouse!

grannyrebel7 Tue 03-Aug-21 15:26:55

Laughed my head off at that!

Mollygo Thu 05-Aug-21 14:13:41

We now have about 16kg of plums and they’re not all picked yet.
Latest cull this am.

MiniMoon Thu 05-Aug-21 14:41:17

No plums or pears this year, as the late frosts destroyed the blossom. We do have some crab apples though.

Soroptimum Thu 05-Aug-21 14:45:05

MawBe

I hope nobody is growing melons ?

grin grin grin

sharon103 Thu 05-Aug-21 14:59:45

I've gone by the book this year and thinned the clumps of plums on my 3 year old plum tree.
Instructions say to do that so what's left can grow bigger.
I wish I hadn't done that now as I've had to snip off loads and I've not got all that many left now. The branches were drooping and I was afraid they would break. That's what happened to another Victoria plum tree I had. I took it out in the end.
Some of the leaves this year have rust? I Googled the problem. Some posts say to spray it in the Spring and some say to leave it as it does no harm to the tree.
Does anyone have any advice please?
I'm beginning to think it's more bother than what it's worth.

tidyskatemum Thu 05-Aug-21 16:26:18

I hate to brag but I’ve got big ones! Lots of them too, which was surprising as there didn’t seem to be much blossom and it didn’t last 5 minutes. Our plums won’t be ripe for at least a couple of weeks though.