plum tree not fruiting

Hi, I have not been very diligent with my garden but now i am determined to put things right! I have 2 plum trres in my garden. The garden is 16 years old on fairly ok clay soil. The first is a marjorie seedling gage which is about 15 years old and had a couple of dozen really nice plums last year, the other is a victoria plum planted about 10 years ago and although they both should be self fertile i dont recall this one ever giving any fruit but dont know if it ever flowered either as i havent been paying attention all that much. They are pretty close to each other- probably too close really (about8 foot) but dont suppose I can move the victoria one now can I ? Does anyone know why they are not doing very well? is it that I have totally ignored them and what can I do to get them back? Also should I be getting more fruit off them than a coupel f dozen. The gage is probably about 10 ft tall (or thereabout as i am not good with imagined height)They do catch the early morning sun because of the way the houses are laid out even though the garden itself faces NW

 

i think id feed them hard to try to get them more active .... they need hi potash fertiliser, i might even try a rose fertiliser which has some extra minerals,,,, but i would think they need plenty of sun, are they going to get frosted where they are?
we must assume they are about full grown , if not then they are much to close together, but even so i think you should be getting a lot more fruit off them ,,,, to be honest rather than move them i d be inclined try another tree in a more sunny position

 

They should both be fruiting by now, even in a poor position. Plums flower early, and blossom can catch frost, as they get early morning sun this will make things worse. If they are flowering OK, watch the blossom to see if it gets frosted this year. You might try covering some of the branches with fleece on frosty nights to see if this is a problem.
If the victoria isn't flowering, I think there must something else wrong, but I don't know what. Does it look healthy?

 

I think that may be part of the problem as they do get hit by v early morning sun and may still be frosty when the flowers are oit. Will keep an eye on it this year. They look healthy enough and the fruit I got was great. Hmm. thinking about it now h=though the one that didnt fruit did have very curled up leaves sometimes and i thought it had been got at by some kind of pest. After the morning sun they do get sun for a good bit of the day so cant think that theat will be a problem. I havent ever fed it and have put down some well composted garden waste this year and will feed it as well I think and see what happens

 

curled up leaves on a fruit tree or bush often is powdery mildew - have a look here, and see what the RHS advises!! http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0800/powdery_mildews.asp

 

i d tend to give them both a good spray, regardless of symptoms, and try to kick start them

 

Curled up leaves on a plum tree are usually caused by plum aphids.

 

ta for that, Palustris!! Will make a note! :D

 

The aphids bite the mid vein on the leaf causing it to curl over as protection for the aphids. If you see ants running up and down the tree trunk then that is a sure sign of aphid infestation.
Mind that is in itself not a cause of lack of flower or fuit. From the description it does sound to me like a frost problem if the trees blossom ok and a feed one if they do not.

 

Plums also suffer quite badly from 'silver leaf' a fungal infection.
when do you prune the PLum trees?
if pruned in winter not only do you loose the fruiting wood, you could also suffer from later problems
always prune after fruiting in summer on established trees for better results.
always spray in mild conditions in the dormant season, ARMILITOX does well
other problems are,
pear slugworms

 

another armillatox fan!! :rolleyes:

 

ABSOLUTLY...
used to use a weak solution of Jeyes fluid, but they advised against that a couple of years ago