Mirabelle de Nancy plum
Nanny gardener
Posts: 34
in Fruit & veg
I have a had a Mirabelle de Nancy plum tree in my garden for at least 3 years but so far no fruit. It is growing and healthy with long thin branches which point upwards. They each have lots of little 'spurs'? On them. It is fairly close to another small plum tree, possibly Victoria, which fruits abundantly. This week I decided to be reckless and snipped off the top 25% of a couple of the branches and tied them horizontally to see if it will encourage fruiting...of course this could be its death knell but I thought what have I got to lose! Any thoughts anyone?
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Pruning may be part of the answer but not at this time of the year as you can introduce silver leaf disease. Generally prune plums and cherries when they are in full leaf. It may be that you need the 'right' pollinator nearby (you may need to research that one). Also try feeding with a high potash fertilizer to encourage fruit production.
Training the branches horizontally will also help to encourage fruit spurs along the branches.
Mirabelle is self fertile and does not need a partner, our plums took 3 years before fruiting, it means it could be growing a root system instead of producing fruit.
Festooning is a great technique to use on plums, encourages flowering/fruiting and also controls vigour.
Festooning? Sounds lovely....but what is it?
This diagram shows it quite well:
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=16215.0
I have a similar problem with a new Victoria, bit of blossom first year of planting but nothing last year or this, though it's growing well and seems healthy. I mulched with compost in Autumn, should I mulch again with some potash compost now or leave it till Autumn?
Like the festooning idea so will give that a go this weekend if I can work out how to anchor it!
Tie the branches to bricks??
Always ensure you don't burry the graft if you do the scion will root and want to be a large tree before it flowers.
Leaves again this year, no blossom as yet but the plum tree right next door has had lovely blossom. Maybe this will be the year for the Mirabelle