Not knowing what varieties we are speaking of....you need to know that some plums are self-fertile...some not. Over-lap of pollinizer trees in bloom is important. Also, you might actually be fine. Plums are borne on fruiting spurs that take a few years to form. Unlike some fruit trees like peaches that bear on last year's wood. Young plum, apple, pear trees take awhile to bear any real fruit.

You need to be more careful in selecting varieties for your region and also ones known to be highly productive. Plums are tricky and highly variable, especially European varieties, which become more difficult to grow heading south. I would think you were in a Z7- are you at a higher elevation?

St Lawrence specializes in varieties that do best in colder regions. Green Gage is difficult most anywhere but probably nearly impossible where you are.

Here in the Northeast, the only widely planted commercial variety is Stanley with the J. variety, Shiro, often produced by small market growers- although you can grow a fantastic range of plums and get fruit most years. That is still a clue on the relative difficulty of cultivating the fruit.

No European variety can be expected to crop well in four years in conditions I'm familiar with.

I have a plum tree, every year it's loaded with fruit, could not be easier. I do in nothing to it but harvest.

RM

Yes, Euros can take a long time to fruit, and Green Gage takes extra super long. Also as hman states Toka and La Crescent are cold weather plums. The cold weather plums have more pollination problems, nobody know exactly why but it has something to do with the fact that they are hybrids of many species.

My Purple Gage is over ten years old and I'm getting my first fruits on it this year. Don't try one of those :-)

Scott

Sujiwan, I am sympathetic. My first plum an Italian prune plum took seven years before I had 22 plums that stayed on the tree. Harvestman is so correct, that Euro plums take a very long time to fruit. It has been nine years now, and my Mirabelles are fruiting. As is the Green Reine Claude and this summer the Italian plum has very few fruit. Probably because it had so many last year. Anyway. They take years. After three to four years I too was very disappointed. It is just how they grow. They take their time, but their fruit is really worth the 'patience'. Mrs. G

The Toka, La Crescent are in Adams County, PA--that's 6B and the others are in Carroll County, MD at 700+ ft elevation, also 6B although some say 7--I don't believe it.

I am thinking of adding a Stanley and making it a trio in MD and possibly add a Satsuma to the PA trees. Also get some of those native bees for the early/wet weather to increase pollination. I guess since plums aren't that long-lived, I thought they would produce earlier!

Is there a definitive resource (that gets updated with varieties) for choosing plums and their best pollinator companions? It isn't always clear which bloom at the same time--maybe the window of opportunity is shorter for pollination to be successful. I see a lot of plum varieties offered, but am not clear which to avoid and which to try for my area(s) of the MidAtlantic. The State U Ag websites don't cover all the plums offered.

MrsG47, thanks for the sympathy, I feel a tad better.

Suji

My sentiments, exactly. On my Euro prune plums (Empress and Long John) I finally had a crop last year after waiting 8 years from planting. This spring, after a bear of a winter, not one bloom! But dreams die hard. I just planted a Black Ice plum, hoping for more good things.

Marc

The hard freeze in the spring was more than my plums could stand. On 6 trees I have a total of 2 plums

Benny

The hard freeze in the spring was more than my plums could stand. On 6 trees I have a total of 2 plums

Benny