2021 Plum Harvest

Photo shows some of my plum harvest from 2021.  This harvest came from one tree, I lost track of the variety name.  2021 was my best harvest year ever for plums.  No sprays, chem free, no bugs or worms.  Used for fresh eating, pitted and dried, canned whole, canned juice, vodka infusions.  Good stuff.

, no bugs or worms

 Advantage of a verry cold winter.  Here almost every bug and larva worm survives the winter unless it gets eaten first.  so if i do not eat the worms I have to make sure the predators do.

Here in the southern hemisphere the plums are almost over and the apples are ripening.
My plum trees are planted at the community garden and the possums ate all our plums so was fortunate to be offered plums from a friend's established tree.
It was a bumper crop this season
  https://youtube.com/shorts/Y2A8c-3d6U0?feature=share  
Made many jars of jam that have been shared widely

   

I'm stratifying plum seeds collected about an hour north of me and hope to have a bunch of trees full in a few years. I wish I'd started all this a decade or two ago. :)

That's interesting! My parents, in Sweden, also had an insane bumper crop of plums. It seems like 2021 was the plum year, both for Sweden, the US and NZ. Wonder why? Or maybe it's coincidence? Anyone on here from Asia or South America growing plums? To see if it's global

Eino Kenttä wrote:That's interesting! My parents, in Sweden, also had an insane bumper crop of plums. It seems like 2021 was the plum year, both for Sweden, the US and NZ. Wonder why? Or maybe it's coincidence? Anyone on here from Asia or South America growing plums? To see if it's global

That is interesting.  Seems coincidental to me but I plead complete ignorance as it relates to larger Earth systems.  My plum crops have been so terrible that I gave up on them years ago.  I was mowing nearby and happened to notice that the trees were loaded down with fruit.  Harvested the first tree the next day.

The one thing I will say regarding my general observations is that bush berries and wild fruit trees like mulberry, wild plum, and chokecherry seem to be consistent producers annually while all the fruit tree cultivars are sporadic at best.  My wild crabapple trees produce heavily every two years like clockwork while I get peak harvests of regular apples, pears, tree cherries every 4-5 years at best.  For plums the 2021 harvest was my best harvest ever.  Plums have been so poor that I have been thinking of getting rid of the trees and putting something else in their place.  With apricots I get a bumper harvest every 10 years or so (literally wheelbarrow loads of fruit) and sporadic, mediocre harvests inbetween.  Apricots have an excuse as they bloom so early and rarely are there any pollinators out yet.  I am okay with such poor harvests because the apricot trees are so beautiful when in bloom.  They earn their keep with their beauty.

I have been wanting to get a couple honeybee hives to aid in pollination as I know bee populations are down here, but cost is prohibitive and last thing I need is to take on another project.  I have done well over the years just bartering for tree fruit from locals and I always end up with what I need.  I have been planting flowers around the orchard and berry patches to attract pollinating insects.  I have to wonder, though, if my production issue is due to lack of pollinators then why do the berry bushes and wild fruiting trees do well every year?

Christopher Weeks wrote:I'm stratifying plum seeds collected about an hour north of me and hope to have a bunch of trees full in a few years. I wish I'd started all this a decade or two ago. :)

Ah, the lament of every true grower/gardener.  I often say the same thing to myself.  Ultimately I feel doing something at any time is better than never doing it.  We cannot do it all, that is why we need a next generation to take over and build on what we have done, which unfortunately does not seem to be happening in any appreciable scale.

Thanks for the seeds you sent in the mail.  I happened to clean and save a bunch of pits from the plums shown in the photos if you want them, I have no need for them.  They have not been stratified so might be too late for this year.  I will email you later today.

-Tom

Hans Quistorff wrote:

, no bugs or worms

 Advantage of a verry cold winter.  Here almost every bug and larva worm survives the winter unless it gets eaten first.  so if i do not eat the worms I have to make sure the predators do.

I really do not like my long cold winters here but I know how absolutely critical they are in order to keep pest and disease problems down.  Cold winters also make for a good maple syrup run as well.  I cringe when we have a mild winter, as much as I personally prefer them, because I know there will be a price to pay during the coming growing season.

Megan Palmer wrote:Here in the southern hemisphere the plums are almost over and the apples are ripening.
My plum trees are planted at the community garden and the possums ate all our plums so was fortunate to be offered plums from a friend's established tree.
It was a bumper crop this season...

Thanks for posting pics and vid.  Those look like wonderful preserves...