[Oilrigger]

Hello, Would appreciate some advice, please.

I have a mature, very tall, bushy plum tree in the corner of my garden. It was overgrown & un-pruned for years. Four years ago in the autumn, I pruned it (I thought, afterwards, maybe a little too vigorously), but was rewarded with some small, tasty yellow plums the following year.

For the last 2 years, I have not touched it, apart from cutting off ivy that climbs up it.

This year, with a long hot summer but strong early autumn winds, we have had almost no fruit. But there is a strange phenomena.......just as the leaves started to turn brown & fall (end August), the windward (SW) third of the tree has started blossoming!  So now, since late September, I have about 33% of the tree covered in blossom & the very beginnings of new shoots, whilst 66% of the tree has browning leaves, which continue to fall............

Can anyone please explain this phenomena & in general terms, advise how I should treat the tree? (I'd planned further pruning around now, but will hold off until I receive some advice/comments).

For info, we live just inland from the coast, have sandy soil & constant strong winds.

Thanks,

[mumofstig]

I think that the tree has just been confused by this year's weather. Hopefully it will return to normal bearing next year.
Some advice on plum pruning here
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=339
but note

Plums are pruned in early spring or mid-summer to avoid infection by silver leaf disease.

[CHRISDONOHUE]

My allotment neighbour's plum tree this year produced a massive crop this year after, apparently, very little last year.   In my experience, a mature tree requires little or no pruning but its crop each year is highly dependant on the weather.   When people seek to "get on top" of established fruit trees, they tend not to realise that they are extremely sensitive to more than minimal pruning and generally find that the offended tree fails to produce a crop at all the next year.  In my view, you were very fortunate if you thought you had pruned too heavily to get a crop the next year.   The tree seems very confused this year.   If the tree were mine, I would leave it to recover, expecting a large crop next year.  Only if it failed to crop well next year would I prune it again.   It clearly needs a rest to revert to normal behaviour.

[Ema]

The rowan tree in our garden has done the same. No issues with the plum.


We need to start buying fruit trees from French stock as our climate is changing.

Also just to say mature plums should be pruned in summer to avoid silver leaf.

I would just mulch the base  of the tree this winter and leave it alone