| A few years ago, one of the plum trees in my yard had boughs that were so heavy with fruit that the they were in danger of breaking, as the photo below illustrates.  But this year, almost nothing, maybe two or three plums on the whole tree. The larger tree to its side was also mostly barren. I don't do anything to care for the plum trees -- no pruning, fertilizing, extra watering, or whatever. The bee population in my neighborhood is pretty good, as far as I can tell, since there isn't much pesticide use, there are a wide variety of flowering plants and probably some backyard beekeepers. So what is going on? Do plum trees go through cycles of fruit production? Do they burst forth with lots of fruit at a certain age, then slow down? Or is weather the critical factor? I suppose that most of the fruit production 'knobs' are outside of my control, but I'm still curious to find out why this year is so terrible. (There is a third tree on the other side of the house that had so-so production; I harvested about 8 pounds of fruit, which I will turn into plum-honey preserves and standard plum jam.) |
