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brownmola

Encouraging Flowers and Fruit??

brownmola
9 years ago

I have a nice sized Beauty Plum and Satsuma Plum that have been in ground for about 5 years. They are nice looking trees and always put out good growth every spring/summer. Unfortunately, I get very few flowers and as a result, very few fruit - have never gotten a single fruit from the Satsuma and only 3 from the Beauty. Whereas a Splash Pluot that I planted next to it has consistently flowered and fruited the past two years. I don't think they need more fertilizer as they look healthy and do put out a lot of growth (I only fertilized very lightly with a 8-6-8)

I was advised that the FoxFarm Tiger Bloom and Big Bloom liquid fertilizers would help. Has anyone had any experience with these products? I'm going to use them as soon as the plums start showing signs of flowering and will keep everyone updated on how it worked, or didn't work.

Thanks.

Comments (16)

  • alan haigh
    9 years ago

    I can't imagine how you could keep a Satsuma plum from fruiting, they bear young and heavily. Only severe pruning could cause this to happen to an otherwise healthy looking tree in my experience, and I install about 10 Satsuma's a year at various sites.

    I've never known a J. plum tree with good growth to fail to fruit due to a nutrient deficiency, although Elephant Heart can take it's sweet time to come into maturity- not so with Satsuma.

    Those products possess no silver bullet and their ingredients will likely not affect your trees. Generally, serious nutrient deficiencies show themselves in the leaves well before they could possibly stop your trees from fruiting.

    So all three trees you mention have been pruned and managed the same way and have ample sunlight exposure? You haven't been heading back all the branches every year, have you?

  • ampersand12
    9 years ago

    I see you are in zone 10, perhaps a chilling issue? I know there is discussion over where chilling is actually needed, I don't know either way but that's what is coming to mind.

  • fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
    9 years ago

    It's much more likely lack of chilling than a nutrient deficiency. My Jap plums and pluots flower reliably in second leaf. I even had good fruit on a newly planted Flavor Supreme last yr. It's blooming again starting a couple days ago. Will be covered in bloom and I fertilize very little.

  • alan haigh
    9 years ago

    Oh yeah, chilling- forgot about that. Maybe because our high today is about 15 with fierce wind. Still, I've seen nice J. plum set in Malibu, but maybe Satsuma requires more chill than others.

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    Yeah I bet no fruit this year too, the chill in CA is yet again at record lows. It has been warm there this winter. It has been a mild winter on the west, and more of a normal winter on the east of the country.

  • brownmola
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Man, I thought we had significantly more chill hours than last year, at least it felt a lot cooler.

    Anyways, here are pictures of the trees. Yes, they were pruned hard the first couple of years but the past two years, mainly pruned to remove twigs and control height.

    This post was edited by brownmola on Sat, Jan 31, 15 at 15:13

  • brownmola
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Here are both trees, Satsuma on the left, Beauty on the right.

    This post was edited by brownmola on Sat, Jan 31, 15 at 15:14

  • fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
    9 years ago

    Do the trees set fruit buds? I'd think even with inadequate chilling they'd still set fruit buds. Then abort soon after bud swell rather than blooming. The abortion stage should be about now.

    Those twigs set the most fruit. Quit pruning them off. On mine there is bloom on spurs and one yr wood. So pruning off the spurs shouldn't totally remove the crop.

  • brownmola
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    They do, I get some flowers, just not a lot. The Beauty produced 15-20 flowers last year and 1 fruit. The Satsuma produced probably double that and no fruit.

    Everything is still pretty dormant with the plums right now.

  • Embothrium
    9 years ago

    15-20 flowers isn't very many.

  • fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
    9 years ago

    The trees should set a thousand or more fruit buds. They can be spotted anytime from late summer until now. If they are all aborting but 15-20 you should be able to see that process happen.

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    Some added bone meal will ensure it's not a nutrient problem

  • sean2280
    9 years ago

    You could also use bat guano. The stuff I have is a 0-5-0 mix.

  • MrClint
    9 years ago

    'Beauty' is a reliable plum in my locale and is very low-chill, so I would be surprised if that was an issue. Can't speak regarding 'Satsuma'. I use the Dave Wilson Nursery recommended fertilizer (Gro-Power) for Backyard Orchard Culture which is low N and ample P & K. Also contains humic acids. If what you already have matches that profile, I'd go ahead and use it.

    Here's a few 'Beauty' plums from my tree last year. They taste like sweet plum wine when dead ripe:

    Here is a link that might be useful: Backyard Fruit Tree Basics

  • alan haigh
    9 years ago

    The trees certainly look adequately dormant. I would expect trees not adequately chilled to hold onto their leaves like figs do in Hawaii.

    They also look like they've been seriously butchered. Maybe you should stick to thinning cuts and any cutting back should be to another branch.

    Is the Sat closest to the street? It looks kind of flower buddy to me. Maybe this will be your year.

  • brownmola
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks, the Beauty is closest to the street. Fingers crossed...