Victoria Plum Tree

I was going to buy a Victoria Plum tree for my garden when we move to
a new property next week only to find there is already a mature Victoria Plum
tree already in the garden :D

I have no idea how long it has been there but how long to these trees last?



:thumb:

 

When we moved in here 30 years ago there were two Victoria plums and they were at least 90 years old and possibly quite a bit older.
We planted another 20 years ago and it's going strong though still recovering from a severe pruning we gave it year before last.

 

90 years Dave?

Wow that's a good age - so seems I can expect this tree to produce for some time yet.

 

Found this when I googled -

"Victoria Plums often have bumper crops.

When it flowers, a plum tree will be covered in blossom, and in a good year 50 per cent
of the flowers will be pollinated and become plums.

Plum trees last 20 years, but need a lot of hard work to prune and thin the trees to ensure
good sized delicious fruit.

British plums are the best, there's no comparison when it comes to eating them fresh"

 

Our garden was an ancient orchard which dates back at least as far as the early 19th century.
The local area still has remnants of fruit trees going back hundreds of years and there has recently been an 'initiative' to save these remaining heritage fruit trees.
We've also got a very old pear and an apple tree in the garden, the pear is at least 100 years old and still produces a massive crop of cookers.

 

Hi everybody.

Don't often get to post on GC lately - what with moving recxently and my impending
hip replacement operation (i.e. not able to do very much at all) but I did manage to
get down to the bottom of the garden to see how my Victoria Plums are growing.

The plums are about as big as gooseberries now and I find that lots of them have
globules of hardened sap on bottom of fruit. I wondered what causes this and does
it mean the fruit are spoiled? Is this what they call canker? and can I get rid of it
apart from chopping down the tree?

Would be pleased to have some expert advice - thanks

Jean

.:cnfs:

 

For goodness sake don't chop the tree!
It's not canker. It's probably due to aphids sucking the sap from leaves and excreting 'honeydew' that lands on the fruit.
Have a close look at the underside of the leaves and you probably find the cause of the problem.
The solution is to get rid of the aphids with with an insecticide.

 

[align=left]Thanks for that Dave.
I didn't really want to chop the tree - it's taken me long enough to get one [/align]

[align=left]I will have another look tomorrow and take action to get rid of aphids if they are the problem.
Will any sort of insecticide do?[/align]

[align=left]Come to think of it - a lot of the leaves do look a bit 'moth eaten' so you are more than
likely right.[/align]

[align=left]The neighbour was telling me I will be lucky to get many plums as the squirrels like
them - and there are quite a few squirrels around here! [/align]



[align=left].[/align]

 

My father in law had a plumb tree in his garden. It was there as long as my husband can remember. He had to put clothes props under the branches to support them and stop the branches breaking under the weight of the plumbs. So I guess plumb trees are pretty long lived.
He also had a pear tree which did masses of pears . Sadly they were inedible whatever you did with them. I just took some away to feed to the blackbirds in winter.
I miss my father in law and his kind, gentle ways. Thankfully my husband is his true son.

 

More or less any insecticide should do the job, but check that it works against aphids. For the last few years I've use "SB Plant Invigorator" it's a soap based non-toxic product and claims to provide a foliar feed too.

BTW - Hope the hip op' goes well. Everyone I know who has had one was running about like a spring lamb in no time at all.

 

Thanks
I will try SB Plant invigorator then. Will getting rid of aphids mean I should get some sort of crop of reasonable plums?

And thanks Dave for remarks about hip op - I am hoping 'spring' and 'lambs' will be
in my mind before long, though it seems I may have to wait until end September because
Consultant is fully booked for August and has decided to take a holiday first half of September
(how dare he!)

 

Your plums should be fine, ours are only small still - about the size of the top joint of my thumb, but it looks like we'll (touch wood) have a bumper crop this year. We've had next to non for the past two years due to some drastic pruning I had to do on the main 20 year old Victoria. We planted a new dwarf tree two years ago and it has about 15 or 20 plums on. Once the new one is a couple of years older and starts providing a bigger crop I'll probably give the older on the chop as it overgrows one of our paths and has become quite difficult to keep in check.

 

I had a victoria some years ago but it had to go! Planted it too near the house and when the fruit was ripe the wasps used to beat me to it. It also made it difficulte to get passed the tree for the perishing wasps. The yield though was excellent.
John

 

20 years seems to be a little too short for a tree's life. I always thought that trees are living long years... I haven't did any research in the plum trees area, but I think they last longer... maybe not 90 but more that 20 years.