Grow Your Own Magazine

I've started a bit of an orchard on my lottie (though really that's far too grand a word for a few fruit trees) So far I have 2 apple trees and a Victoria plum. Next week I'm going to buy a third apple and another plum. I love Victoria plums, but believe that pollination would improve if I bought a different variety, so can anyone recommend a lovely sweet, juicy plum that will grow well in the frozen North and that isn't Victoria? My local GC stocks Czar, Opal and Marjorie's seedling and from what I've read Opal is probably what I'm looking for, but when I saw some on sale once (the actual fruit, not the trees) they didn't look too appealing. Does anyone here grow Opal and if so what do you think? I would rather buy the right variety mail order though than be stuck with something that no-one will eat, so if anyone has any other suggestions instead then I'd be grateful.

Hi

I have an opal and they are gorgeous and the first year was a heavy cropper but since then not had much but I didn't have other plum trees then, now I do am hoping to have a better crop, but have just bought a Victoria!, not sure whether same pollination time but I will find out. Opal is quite early and got caught by the frost this year a bit.

from
SAraheliz

I can just repeat, that Opal is a lovely, sweet, juicy fruit, but much earlier than Victoria, I'm afraid.

Victoria is self-fertile - it doesn't need a friend in order to produce fruit

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Plums have 3 main needs: warmth (esp. at pollination time) light and moisture.
Plums flower earlier in the season than most other fruit trees, so they should not be planted in a frost-pocket.
If your garden is in a cool area, avoid early flowering varieties - good varieties to choose in the North are Czar, Victoria or Marjorie's Seedling.

Plum trees like to be planted in full sun.

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As said above: Victoria is self-fertile.
If you get a pollinator, you'll probably get so many plums that your Victoria produces lots of small plums, only crops well every second season and may break branches under the strain of the fruit.
The solution would be to thin the fruitlets after the early summer fruit drop, but unless you really need another plum, I think that Victoria is best grown alone, to minimise the attention required.
Poor pollination is likely to be frost damage of the flowers, or too few bees flying, due to bad weather.

1) Plums are only 'on heat' for want of a better word (I have been up all night) for about 10 days. It's crucial the blossom is warm at this time. Perhaps fleecing is in order?

2) to attract bees: have some food available early in the year in your garden. Early flowering heather and flowering currant, lavender, sage, catmint, stonecrop, toadflax and fruit trees. Weeds are good for bees too (dandelion, daisy, deadnettle).

3) try bee boxes/nests

4) avoid killing bees with products like Derris

5) Plums do tend to have a good year followed by a poor year.


good luck!

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

Thanks everyone. My Victoria can stay single then and I'll use the space for something else. I knew they were self-fertile, but was told by an 'old boy' that they did better with a partner, rather like blueberries. I recently bought a hazel-nut tree and the cultural instructions claim that this will do better with a pollination partner. This is probably a good thing as I'd gone for one variety, but in rummaging about for the healthiest looking specimen I managed to stray into the pots of a different type, so its partner can be the one I wanted in the first place.

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