Xref: news7 rec.gardens.edible:52112

I have three plum trees in my yard and two of them(a Methley and Santa Rosa)
don't have any buds and all and are putting out leaves.I have a purple leaf
plum that is loaded with buds and located about 30 fteet from the others.I
haven't experienced any problems with them in the last 3 years.Any idea why
this would happen?I'm stumped.....

Thanks

Did you experience severe drought last summer? The trees may have been to
stressed to set fruit buds. Fertilize one but not the other two? Prune
them differently, inadvertently pruning off the fruit spurs? Or, they may
be varieties that naturally fall into an alternate year bearing habit; I
know apples do this, not sure about plums. Some trees bear very heavily one
year, then little or not at all the next. There are nut trees that bear on
longer cycles--one theory is that the lean years diminish the squirrel
populations, so that when a heavy year comes, more nuts have a chance at
growing. The fix for this, in fruit trees, is to thin the young fruit in a
heavy year so it depletes the tree's resources less and balances out the
cycles.

Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA

"John" wrote in message
...
I have three plum trees in my yard and two of them(a Methley and Santa
Rosa)
don't have any buds and all and are putting out leaves.I have a purple
leaf
plum that is loaded with buds and located about 30 fteet from the others.I
haven't experienced any problems with them in the last 3 years.Any idea
why
this would happen?I'm stumped.....

Thanks

Come to think of it,the purple leaf grew at a much faster rate than the
other two and it was a dry summer.Perhaps it is stress related.Thanks for
the reply.

John

SugarChile wrote in message
ink.net...
Did you experience severe drought last summer? The trees may have been to
stressed to set fruit buds. Fertilize one but not the other two? Prune
them differently, inadvertently pruning off the fruit spurs? Or, they
may
be varieties that naturally fall into an alternate year bearing habit; I
know apples do this, not sure about plums. Some trees bear very heavily
one
year, then little or not at all the next. There are nut trees that bear
on
longer cycles--one theory is that the lean years diminish the squirrel
populations, so that when a heavy year comes, more nuts have a chance at
growing. The fix for this, in fruit trees, is to thin the young fruit in
a
heavy year so it depletes the tree's resources less and balances out the
cycles.

Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA

"John" wrote in message
...
I have three plum trees in my yard and two of them(a Methley and Santa
Rosa)
don't have any buds and all and are putting out leaves.I have a purple
leaf
plum that is loaded with buds and located about 30 fteet from the
others.I
haven't experienced any problems with them in the last 3 years.Any idea
why
this would happen?I'm stumped.....

Thanks