Nacktschnecken omlet Cube

[merlina]

I was looking forward to a marathon plum jam making session this year, but now it looks as though my plum tree has problems

 

Rummaging around on the interweb, it sounds like bacterial canker and the suggested treatment is bordeaux mixture. So I have a couple of questions:

 

The most noticeable problems is that the plums (currently green), mostly seem to be oozing 'something' - like sap? A clear gooey liquid

There are far fewer plums than last year (altho I know crops vary)

It's an old tree (maybe 20/30 years) and hasn't been pruned for a few years

It has some dead branches (and some very healthy looking ones). It forks about 2ft from the ground (has done since forever) and there was some sap/something oozing from that fork earlier in the year

 

So:

Do omleteers agree with my diagnosis?

Will be plums be useable or should i get rid now?

What do I do with my tree? (one forum said the only thing to do was get rid of the tree and the roots - I really don't want to!)

 

Any suggestions gratefully received!

[sjp]

the sap oozing from the fruit is because there is a grub in the plum, plum moth I think

the lack of fruit is partly because of the bumper crop last year but mostly down to the poor weather this year my early plum was white with flower this year I think I've got 4 plums that are ripening which are very small and best part of a month late

any dead branches need to be cut out before the end of the month while it's still reasonably worm to avoid silver leaf desease all the bigger cuts need to be sealed with Arbrex Seal and Heal

the canker is the main problem, and I don't think bordeaux mixture is aviable any more and most of the new fungicides arent that good

 

the fruit should be still useable but will need to be cut open to remove the grub and to be cleaned

[merlina]

ah - so I have two problems?!

bah!

Ok, so i need bordeaux mixture for the canker (I found it on ebay and amazon)

and some of those moth pheremone traps for next year from the sound of it

 

Thanks for the advice

[sjp]

ah - so I have two problems?!

bah!

Ok, so i need bordeaux mixture for the canker (I found it on ebay and amazon)

and some of those moth pheremone traps for next year from the sound of it

 

Thanks for the advice

I used the traps once for saw fly in apples never again went from a few apples with grub damage to nearly all the apples with grubs

[merlina]

ooh! thanks for that

I read that the grubs tend to overwinter in the ground round the base of the tree and that hens would eat them if they foraged there. So I was giving the girls their treats there to see if that was a good preventative

Guess not!

[Lavenders_Blue]

I have plum moth maggots in my fruit too I only planted my plum tree (Victoria) last year and was so excited to see it has fruited well this year - but have found maggots in both of the two plums I have picked so far!

 

It's a bit of a pest, but I will cut them open, wash them well and make them into jam (it must be okay if the fruit is all boiled up?). The RHS website seems to suggest a pheremone trap and also a couple of different sprays which can be applied mid-June and then again 3 weeks later.

 

I am not a big fan of spraying, but on the other hand I'm not really that keen on maggots getting to my plums before I do, so maybe the lesser of the evils?!

[RyanR]

It has all the symptoms BC. and if it is, you can spray and prune, but there is no cure. It will get worse year on year, until it won't bear any fruit. This is the best time of the year to prune but I would get rid.