Fruit tree gone crazy

[Mark R]

My plum tree seems to be growing with exceptional vigour - so much so that it seems to have bitten off more than it can chew, so to speak.

It has developed so much fruit, that its branches are dragging along the ground, some of them even having snapped under the weight. The remainder are currently supported by a complex system of canes and twigs, but I fear that it is going to kill itself before the fruit is ripe.

This hasn't happened before, and I just wondered if this was a common occurance with modern varieties of crop trees, or whether they go through cycles of fruiting - 1 year poor, 1 year excellent, or similar.

 

[roncarter]

Originally posted by: Mark R
My plum tree seems to be growing with exceptional vigour - so much so that it seems to have bitten off more than it can chew, so to speak.

It has developed so much fruit, that its branches are dragging along the ground, some of them even having snapped under the weight. The remainder are currently supported by a complex system of canes and twigs, but I fear that it is going to kill itself before the fruit is ripe.

This hasn't happened before, and I just wondered if this was a common occurance with modern varieties of crop trees, or whether they go through cycles of fruiting - 1 year poor, 1 year excellent, or similar.

this happened to my dads tangerince tree.. IT WAS AWESOME!!!

 

[quirky]

NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF NEF

 

[yobarman]

don't just stand there!! you should reap the "fruits" of your labor! get it, the fruits of your labor are actually fruits. eh...eh?

 

[Moonbeam]

I believe this is rather common. Just relieved my Mom's plum tree of a titanic load. The branches were hanging vertically. I would think that carefun and knowledgable pruning would be in order to keep the tree from self destructing. You have to know the fruiting habits of specific trees to prune properly if you want fruit. Some fruit from year old stems ans some from two year old stems, I think. If you aren't too worried about next year, you can prune the tree back, check for proper time of year, to a good strong compact structure so the main branches can support the fruit load withoug breaking.

 

[Howard]

Pull off all the ones you won't be eating. Let them drop where they would normally go. The nutrients have to come from somewhere...