Plum tree advice please.

[harrycatcat1]

I put two plum trees in my garden about 25 years ago but one of them never really did anything so I chopped it down.

The second one for the last 4 or 5 years has been "afflicted" with the plums going rotten and shriveling up on the tree.

Has anyone got any advice how I can cure it or is it time to get it chopped down?

[243deer]

It may be brown rot that you have 

advice here https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=114#:~:text=Brown rot-,Brown rot,the flowers and fruit spurs.

[harrycatcat1]

20 minutes ago, 243deer said:

It may be brown rot that you have 

advice here https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=114#:~:text=Brown rot-,Brown rot,the flowers and fruit spurs.

I have to admit that it looks like that is it.

Thanks for taking the time to comment 👍👍👍

Looks like it's going to get chopped.

[martinj]

I had something like this in my Damson tree, I gave it a couple of years but eventually cut it down and found that the wood was infected throughout, there was brown staining in the growth rings

[dodgy dave]

might be good for carving walking stick handles and the like nice colours inside

[martinj]

I did keep  piece so I might have a go when I'm feeling creative

[yod dropper]

Get the fruit off early and disposed of to control the spread. We get it on out trees but it's manageable and we still get plenty of fruit.

[harrycatcat1]

1 hour ago, yod dropper said:

Get the fruit off early and disposed of to control the spread. We get it on out trees but it's manageable and we still get plenty of fruit.

I try to keep taking the bad ones off but it seems to spread like wildfire 😣

[moondoggy]

Chop it down and give the biggest chunks of wood to me to turn into spoons.😁

Plum makes very pretty spoons.

The fourth spoon from the left is plum, as is the butter knife at the top.

[martinj]

We had NO good fruit once it took hold, first year or 2 there was a mix of good and bad, after that all bad

[stumfelter]

Nothing worse than your plums shrivelling up.....

[harrycatcat1]

2 hours ago, stumfelter said:

Nothing worse than your plums shrivelling up.....

😁😁😁😁👍

[DoolinDalton]

4 hours ago, stumfelter said:

Nothing worse than your plums shrivelling up.....

Except shrivelling up AND  dropping off!  A couple of my gardening customers have the same problem...so I'll have to see if it can be sorted, as I like plums...especially free ones!

[Mice!]

Obviously too late this year, have you tried giving it a really good prune?

Your pictures look like there is a lot of leaf around the fruit.

[39TDS]

Infections like that usually get in through wounds. I am no expert on them but plum moth might be causing the damage and the brown rot a secondary infection.

[lord_seagrave]

There’s a lot of foliage there. Perhaps try pruning it first. Do it now (summer) and paint the wounds with Arbrex. Get the size and shape of the tree more manageable, and that might make it easier to get on top of any rot next year.

LS

[harrycatcat1]

On 31/07/2020 at 14:18, lord_seagrave said:

There’s a lot of foliage there. Perhaps try pruning it first. Do it now (summer) and paint the wounds with Arbrex. Get the size and shape of the tree more manageable, and that might make it easier to get on top of any rot next year.

LS

Wife has just 3 lovely looking plums off it, cut them open and they were full of "little worms".

My instructions are to "chop the useless thing down"

Thanks for everyone's advice anyway 👍

[Yellow Bear]

38 minutes ago, harrycatcat1 said:

Wife has just 3 lovely looking plums off it, cut them open and they were full of "little worms".

My instructions are to "chop the useless thing down"

Thanks for everyone's advice anyway 👍

plum moth then

[harrycatcat1]

2 hours ago, Yellow Bear said:

plum moth then

Any cure that you know of ?

[Yellow Bear]

10 minutes ago, harrycatcat1 said:

Any cure that you know of ?

In a word     "nope"

[39TDS]

46 minutes ago, harrycatcat1 said:

Any cure that you know of ?

Very difficult if not impossible to cure at this stage, the damage is already done.

One of those moth traps as above should help next year. For gardens they use them to control the moths, in big plantations they count the moths caught daily and when a certain number is reached they spray the whole field.

[Mice!]

I hadn't really looked at my plum tree since pruning last year, took off some bad fruit at the weekend and noticed a lot more leaves than normal,  lots of fruit on the tree, they really are a great fruit tree.

Does anyone know how long they give fruit for? This was already in the garden when we moved in 8 years ago.

[yod dropper]

Don't think that's brown rot, sure that sort of mummifies the fruit.

[amateur]

8 minutes ago, Mice! said:

Does anyone know how long they give fruit for? This was already in the garden when we moved in 8 years ago.

We planted ours about 28 years ago. 

It has fruited every year for about 25 years and this year has been the best.

[Mice!]

3 minutes ago, amateur said:

We planted ours about 28 years ago. 

It has fruited every year for about 25 years and this year has been the best.

Thanks for that, ours certainly looks an older tree, but I might look at planting another, I'd like a cherry tree, but I'd just be feeding the birds.