Opal Plum no blossom

Katie.partington

Hello, I planted an Opal plum around 5 or 6 years ago, so far it hasn’t had any blossom. Lots of leaves but no flowers and so ultimately no fruit. With the exception of this year, where one solitary flower bloomed on the tip of one stem. It’s never been pruned, and has just been left to its own devices. Any ideas on how to get it to fruit? 

Many thanks 

Katie 

Liriodendron

I always ask this question, having suffered total loss of blossom this year on my two apple trees... do you have bullfinches visiting your garden?  They love fruit blossom buds and can strip a whole tree...

Katie.partington

No, we are right in the city centre, the only birds we really get are house sparrows, blue tits and blackbirds. Thanks for you response though.

pansyface

There’s an Opal plum growing on waste ground near me. It sits in long lank grass, without benefit of fertiliser or any kind of maintenance. Every year it is covered in fruit, which irritates me enormously as it is much more productive than the carefully tended trees in my garden.

So pruning clearly doesn’t matter when it comes to productivity.

I would take a look at the branches and twigs of yours. There will be leaves growing along the branches, but can you see any little empty “sockets” that look as if they might have had leaves growing out of them but they are bare and look dead? My guess is that if you can see anything that looks like a missing bud, it is a missing bud. I think birds have nipped out the flower buds and that the empty sockets you see once had flower buds in them.

I have one plum tree which birds find irresistible. Every spring they peck the flower buds out before they have had time to form more than little bumps on the branches. When the time comes for the leaves to open, you can see long bare parts on the branches with nothing growing on them.

Katie.partington

Thank you, I’ll take a closer look and see if thats the case.