My two Plum Trees - Advice

[ramled99]

Hello All:

I live in southern California, and I planted 2 plum trees last fall, in September, about 6-8 feet apart in my backyard. One is called a Santa Rose Plum Tree. The other is called a Satsuma Plum tree. I bought these trees in the pot at my local nursery, and then planted them in the ground in my backyard in September of last year. I am not exactly sure how you determine the age of a plum trees. I also fertilized them when I planted them in my backyard. They both had leaves on them but no flowers or fruit on them when I bought them in September. They both lost all their leaves over the winter months, which I assume is fine.
Around January or February they both started growing leaves. I fertilized them both in late February. They both starting blooming beautiful white flowers around late February or early March, and now, I think I am seeing plums budding!? But I am not sure. I was wondering if anyone who is a plum tree grower can give me any advice. How are the trees looking overall? When do you fertilize? Do they look okay? Any concerns? Are those green buds in the pictures the plums growing?! Any advice or comments at all would be great. I don't know how many plums I can produce, but I hope I get a good amount. I assume it would take years before any plums were produced because I thought I read online somehwere that plum trees take 3 plus years to produce.

Any feedback, evaluation, tips, observations would be greatly appreciated! I am a novice at this!

 

[Chuck]

Hello All:

I live in southern California, and I planted 2 plum trees last fall, in September, about 6-8 feet apart in my backyard. One is called a Santa Rose Plum Tree. The other is called a Satsuma Plum tree. I bought these trees in the pot at my local nursery, and then planted them in the ground in my backyard in September of last year. I am not exactly sure how you determine the age of a plum trees. I also fertilized them when I planted them in my backyard. They both had leaves on them but no flowers or fruit on them when I bought them in September. They both lost all their leaves over the winter months, which I assume is fine.
Around January or February they both started growing leaves. I fertilized them both in late February. They both starting blooming beautiful white flowers around late February or early March, and now, I think I am seeing plums budding!? But I am not sure. I was wondering if anyone who is a plum tree grower can give me any advice. How are the trees looking overall? When do you fertilize? Do they look okay? Any concerns? Are those green buds in the pictures the plums growing?! Any advice or comments at all would be great. I don't know how many plums I can produce, but I hope I get a good amount. I assume it would take years before any plums were produced because I thought I read online somehwere that plum trees take 3 plus years to produce.

Any feedback, evaluation, tips, observations would be greatly appreciated! I am a novice at this!

Overall your trees look very good. However, they need some serious pruning. You prune plums in December-January. I could try to explain how but I would probably just get you confused. Just do a google search on How To Prune A Plum Tree. There are all kinds of videos and articles. And yes, those little green things are plums and it appears you will have a lot more. But, not all is great about those baby plums. A plum is like a peach in that the tree will set more fruit than it can grow into a nice big plum and this means that you will have to prune away probably 50% of those baby plums if you want nice big plums. Otherwise the plums you get will be a lot smaller and mostly seed. Every plum tree and peach tree owner I know just hates to do this. Sometimes a late frost comes around and the tree will self abort fruit or self prune but, I doubt this will happen in Southern Calif. You fertilize in the spring when the buds are forming and where you live you can also fertilize in the fall. I don't know about the insect problems in S. Cal. but each fall after leaf drop you should spray the entire tree with dormant oil. Then in the spring spray again before the tree buds. I have grown Santa Rosa plums but not Satsuma Plums. If the Satsuma is a good as the Santa Rosa you'll be very happy.

 

[Meadowlark]

I love plums also. We make fantastic plum jelly out of the fruit....and folks can't wait to get it each year.

Yours appear to be doing well except the lack of greenery extending to the ends of the branches indicating to me they could benefit from some pruning next winter.

I've heard that "three years" also but ours were producing the second year and every year since. Good luck with 'em.

 

[ramled99]

Thank you so much Chuck. This is very helpful. Let me just ask..
1. Do you think I should do any pruning now to see if these budding baby plums can grow to maximum size? Or are you saying to just let this tree do what it will do this year wait until Dec/Jan to prune?

I will look at a video on how to prune a plum tree. Thanks so much!

 

[Chuck]

Thank you so much Chuck. This is very helpful. Let me just ask..
1. Do you think I should do any pruning now to see if these budding baby plums can grow to maximum size? Or are you saying to just let this tree do what it will do this year wait until Dec/Jan to prune?

I will look at a video on how to prune a plum tree. Thanks so much!

I wouldn't hurt anything to remove some of the fruit but if it were my tree I would just let it do its thing, produce foliage and grow roots. Then next winter do some serious pruning.

Look at more than one video. Look at a bunch

 

[ramled99]

I wouldn't hurt anything to remove some of the fruit but if it were my tree I would just let it do its thing, produce foliage and grow roots. Then next winter do some serious pruning.

Look at more than one video. Look at a bunch

Got it. Thanks again!