My mother has had plum trees since about the time I first married in the late 60's. To my knowledge they have never produced many plums. They were given to her by an old Black Lady that was a cook for my grandmother at her restaurant. She was the nicest old lady you could have ever known and we all loved her very much. I guess the memory of her is what makes these trees so special to both of us. The problem is that they only seem to produce plum trees now days. I have replanted a few of the seed propagated sprouts this spring and they are doing well. Hopefully in a few years they will give us some fruit. In the mean time, I would like to revive the older trees if possible. There are two problems as I see it. 1: The lack of production seems to be related to worms getting into the fruit. I have sprayed them on numerous occasions and it doesn't stop the pest. I have sprayed them at the first swelling of the buds then at the first sight of the blooms and again at full bloom and again at fruit setting and they still get worms. I have also dusted the trees and the ground around them with 7-Dust as recommended by a neighbor who has plums and said that is all he ever uses and that didn't work either. Before the fruit can mature and ripen, it falls off and you can cut it open to find the worm. Makes lots of little trees but not good for eating. Q: What can I do to get rid of these pests? 2: The other problem I think may be that she never kept the sucker shoots cut back and around the 2 or 3 main trees, there are about 12 - 15 sucker bushes that also I thought would be good for producing (until I read some of the replies in other threads in this forum). They are about 2/3 as tall as the older trees which are about 18 - 20 ft. tall. Q: Should I remove these sucker shoots to allow the primary tree receive all the nourishment from the root system or just give them more fertilizer? Any advice on how to turn this thicket into producing trees would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Ken
