Bugs on a plum tree

Sheila25

Last year my Victoria plum tree was covered in aphids ants wasps and flies, loads of blossom in spring but the fruit shrivelled and dropped off, this year much less blossom.

the tree is about four years old and so far have had three plums!!!  What shoulf I do?

pansyface

Quite a lot of different things to think about there.

Firstly, your plum tree is very young. It flowered well last year but it sounds as if the fruit wasn't pollinated so the immature fruits fell off. This could have been caused by cold weather - the bees didn't feel like going out to do the job or frost destroyed the flowers before they were pollinated, maybe.

This year the tree hasn't produced as many flowers. That could be the result of it having made too much of an effort last year - it's young and shouldn't be made to work too hard too soon. Or maybe it hasn't been fed recently. Maybe grass or other plants have been stealing its nutrition. Have you fed it? Is the ground round about it clear of weeds and grass?

You say that there were a lot of aphids, ants, wasps and flies last year. The ants were there because the aphids were there. Ants eat aphids' waste products. The wasps were there either to eat the aphids, which they like to do, or to join the ants in eating the aphids' waste products or to eat ripe fruit. Flies are a sign of something sugary luing around, so my guess is that they were at the same game as the ants and the wasps.

What to do? Clean the area around the tree of grass and/or weeds. Give it a good mulch of home made compost.

Sheila25

Thank you for your response, will try your suggestion