[3759allen]

we have a plum tree on the border of our garden that has produced a half decent crop this year. i don't know anything about it and can't really do anything with it as it's not actually ours. it's not cared for at all, just growing in waste land pretty much.

anyway back to the question. the plums seem to be rotting before they are ripe. some have maggot/ worms of some sort in but not all of them.

can you pick them and ripen them off the tree? would this help in anyway?

or have they not been properly pollinated? if this is the case can you hand pollinate in any way?

any help or advice much appreciated. thanks

[mumofstig]

It is probably the pests that are causing them to drop early.
Once there's damage to the skin rots get in, or the wasps eat them, and then they drop.

They will also drop early if the tree has set more fruit than conditions will allow it to hold on to - perhaps the soil has got too dry over the last few weeks 

[3759allen]

thanks for the reply.

most of the fruit don't look like having any damage, prob 90% of the fruits look perfect until they rot and drop.

maybe your right about them producing more than they can support. last year there was only 7 fruits and they all ripened with no problems, this year there's more than 4 times that amount. so would kind of make sense.

as i can't add any water or feed in any way would it be better to snip of some of the fruit while they're small to thin them out?

[Goosegirl]

I vaguely remember a similar thread earlier this year about fruit rotting and dropping off and think they were plums. Cut open one that has fallen off to see if it contains the plum sawfly maggot.