As I recall, my Green Gage started fruiting year 4. Like all my trees, I prune it fairly lateral. If the branches don't grow lateral, I pull them down. I also do a lot of stub cuts on the water spouts to give them the opportunity to form spurs, or at least form more lateral shoots from the buds on the stubs. I think I have to prune mine a couple times during summer, then once in the dormant season.

Still it doesn't set a bunch of fruit. I don't have to thin it. I've never heard Green Gage described as a heavy producer.

Sunlight is probably the biggest challenge for your plum.

My property had a Green Gage thicket when we bought it⦠dozens of trees/shrubs from what I guess was only one or two original plants. Every year there are new plants starting from root sprouts in different places, so I can very easily track their growth and development. It definitely takes several years (at least 3-4) for these new plants to flower, and even the healthiest ones are never loaded with flowers. If the weather is ideal during bloom they can set a good deal of fruit, but this is unfortunately rare in my climate. These are surely delicious plums, but not my top choice because of their disease susceptibility and shy flowering/bearing.

Thank you, guys, I guess I have to say good by to this one - I have no space to waste. Do you think all plums wouldn't grow in the same condition? The peach tree produces OK in the same condition, even this year after very harsh winter it is flowering - not that crazy like last year, by fair enough. Sour cherry is fine as well.
fabaceae_nativ, what is your location? If it is close to mine(Massachusetts, zone 5B), what is your choice for plums?

Whether or not you get rid of it, a plum tree with 6 hours of sun needs a lot more opening up with pruners than that tree has. I have many plums in 6 hours and it took me years to figure out how to prune them. I tie down shoots to horizontal and keep a fairly narrow fruiting plane from about 4-7' off the ground. Once I started doing this they all started fruiting.

Scott

That grass looks awfully green. If you are fertilizing the grass, you are fertilizing the plum tree.

The roots of your plum tree extend into the brick bordered area.

I do not fertilizing the grass - it just spring and it is very bright because of it - never mowed yet... Though I have two dogs and they sure add some fertilizer to the grass(.

I'd keep the Green Gage. In my opinion, it's everything a plum should taste like.

I'm with Olpea on the Green Gage. FYI all of my plums have taken 5-7 years to really fruit. All of my Europeans have been slow. But you can't beat the taste. Mrs. G

I wish I can taste at least one plum)

I expect a Green Gage on myro to take 6 years to begin fruiting here, without drastic methods such as pulling branches well below horizontal (which forces flowers on the ends of such branches). Euro plums generally take a couple more years than most Japs.

Scot's advice is right on about pruning when growing fruit in the shade. The nice thing about most plums is they can still get up the sugar without a great deal of sun exposure. Unfortunately, I haven't found this to be true of Green Gage, which I've only found to be sublime when grown in full sun. I have one in better light than yours which has OK fruit but others I manage in full sun are sooo much better.

I notice you've been heading back the branches when you prune, which delays maturity. It looks like you have too many scaffolds that have not been adequately spread to horizontal and their diameter is over half that of the trunk at point of attachment which are all delayers of fruitfulness.

Unless the tree is on Citation, I believe you still have at least a couple years to go, even if you begin to alter your training methods.

Graft on some Castleton if you want a variety that bears pretty young in a small space and gets great sugar in a shadier location.

Great advise, if I could graft... I am pretty novice in fruit trees. How do you know what it is grafted on? I needed to know this for my apricot tree I planted last year to see if it is nematodes-resistant and Stark Brothers couldn't answer this question for me - they said they don't know. I feel there is a big disconnect between all the scientific information I can find in the internet and reality to buy the right fruit trees from sources available to me. Can you point me to the exact place to buy/type of the tree that would be grafted on Castleton? Or I take it wrong, and Castleton should be grafted on something else?

About topping the branches. In one season it grows the shoots about 5' tall from the skeleton branch - just almost upright strait shoot. I just can't afford such length to mature - there are wires above it. I bought the tree as "dwarf"(the label was on the branch) to find another "semi-dwarf" label attached to the trunk and covered with mulch in the pot. So I guess it is neither - dwarf nor semi-dwarf and just doesn't fit my location(

Just as usual - made a search on Internet. Couldn't find ANY place that sell Castleton plum tree. One place is out of stock but they do not have dwarf anyway...

This post was edited by galinas on Thu, May 8, 14 at 6:41

Harvestman,

Have you had the chance to taste Autumn Sweet plum. My graft died before I had the chance to taste it.

Tony

Galinas,

There are not many nurseries that sell Castleton, not sure why since it's supposed to be a good plum variety that is self fertile.

I got my this year from Cummins Nursery, an excellent nursery. It's on Marianna GF 8-1 rootstock which I was told will grow up to 10 ft. That's a rather short tree. With pruning, you can keep it shorter.

It's a lot to learn esp. if you are quite new to fruit trees. Don't get discouraged. Keep reading old/new posts in this forum, you'll learn a lot.