newbie question - what is bottle feeding? and how does it help with pollination?

You see a branch stuck in the bottle with water and a bit of miracle grow, it will help to extend the life of that branch a couple of day's before wilting, in the hopes bees can use it's pollen to fertilize the Ivanovka.

There is only one drawback, I don't know if this cut branch plum pollen is any good for cross pollination, I don't know what it is, the tree when put in died back and think the new growth is the root stock. I would think it would be better pollen then from a hybrid, ..should find out soon if the fruit set is any better.

I get it -- Thanks at first I couldn't figure out how the tree was going to feed from that bottle never saw the branch in it.

Konrad,
That was ingenious. Are the other plum trees not helping with the cross-pollination?
Sengyan

Yes, this one is out in the nursery and nothing else is blooming except the Fofonoff, it might be that both are high breeds and don't pollinate each other, I gave both the same treatment, [branch from home].

The branch in the bottle is still looking good,..taken up a fair bit of water, yesterday I watched, withing about 10 min. I could see a bumble and a honey bee going from this branch to the tree, ..hopefully no frost tonight, it was 4C at 9.30PM. tonight!

Konrad, I've done that method many times with an apricot tree I have which is physically isolated from the rest by about 300 feet. It definitely works -- if I don't do it, the tree sets hardly anything. If I put a branch from another tree in a jug of water set up in the crown, it sets apricots, weather permitting of course.

I almost didn't open this thread, but I'm so glad I did! I can't believe I haven't read about this before...

mytime:

I can't believe you almost didn't open this thread, LOL !

I had to, just because of the "catchy" subject. =:)

Plus, Konrad almost always attaches awesome pictures that make it worth reading his threads even if the subject doesn't necessarily apply to you..........

Thank you all!
Luckily, the combination has worked 100%

denninmi, ...good for you!

As you see, a closeup shot progress from this flower ball picture.
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June 11 fruit set,.. then self thinning.
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July 2,.. tree is loaded, I'm still baffled, from several years of nothing or sometimes not even a hand full to this!
Conclusion,..pollination is of such importance in Japanese plums, the mystery is still out there,.. which one will do the job right?
Heaving a European plum, self fertile, like the Mt.Royal in your smaller back yard, which does not too bad for the City of Edmonton can be a nice tree to have without the need of a half a dozen other trees for cross pollination.
Unless you can top graft several varieties onto one tree.
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That is awesome! I learn something new everytime I open one of the threads that sound "interesting". Glad it worked for you Konrad. Now, hopefully, we will have some heat in this city. :)

Ginny

I tried this with my apple tree. My front yard tree and the backyard tree are 2 weeks apart, so the backyard tree was just coming into full bloom as the front one was ending. My second backyard tree was dead this year (or so I thought...it decided to show up late and is blooming now...guess I'll give it another year before I cut it down). So I cut off a branch I was wanting to cut anyway from the front yard tree and put it in the backyard. And had my parents bring me branches from their apple trees. I now have more apples on State Fair than ever before! Thanks so much for posting this.

Thank you all!
Good for you, Mytime!

Plums are getting ready now, picture from yesterday, ...looks like semi freestone a bit on the dry side but I like it better then soggy.
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This is showing what turned out from the flower ball picture [above]
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WOW!!! So impressive!
And thanks again for showing this method of fertilization. It worked great for me this year.

That is oh so awesome, I was just wondering if it would work with apples and low and behold of course someone was trying it!!! Love this site so much cool info. Cheryl

So what type of branch was this in the bottle. You never mention what actual plum you used to pollinate that invanovka

I didn't, ups, really? It was a Ptitsin plum, [not sure which one] there are many, been hearing that all are good pollinators. Most likely it's a Ptitsin #5,...an expert @ the fruit show said no.This is a rock hardy green/yellow plum, very nice flavor but the earliest to flower. I lost it now, the whole tree died after 35 years, cut it down 2 weeks ago and replanted with a little Fofonoff I grafted. Cut some Ptitsin scion and grafted more 2 day's ago,..will see if I saved it, the other on the same tree, Mirabelle the Nancy, [domestica] I lost for sure,..wood was too dry to cut any.

Do you have any spare ptitsen wood? I was going to buy a #5 just to keep in pot so I can harvest the wood and graft to my brookgold. I need any Japanese plum but really don't want to spend $100 on a tree just to get a good pollinator for my brookgold.

I did this exact same thing this year bottle fed a large nanking branch and put it in my brookgold tree. It was exposed to toka nanking nigra and brookred pollen At the same time. I had bees for 2 days only and never seen much after. I had to hand pollinate the Wenatchee because it opened weeks after these trees did. I used toka we will see if the Americans claims on toka as a good pollinator is true.

It appears that not all flowers and fruit set was zapped on the plums by that minus 5 we had.

OK..that's good news then. Sorry matt..had a very limited wood on the dying tree, wood didn't look too good either.

Konrad, amazing photo of the flower ball! Always learn a semester's worth of pomology from every couple of your posts! But please clarify if you have time, since I am very interested in pollination issues, including your "wild" P. nigra discoveries in the backyard, whose beautiful photos you posted along with its fruit, in another thread. Anyway, I thought you said in the first post you did not really know what the pollen parent was since the tree "had died"? "I don't know what it is, the tree when put in died back and think the new growth is the root stock." By this, I understand you to say that your FRUITING Ptitsin5 or other tree that might also have had a Mirabelle de Nancy co-grafted along with it on a rootstock unknown to you, died back. You saved some Ptitsin scions, were unable to save the Mirabelle. The rootstock grew back, flowered, and you took the flowering branch from this unknown type and this was the one that pollinized the Ivanovka. Am I reading you right? SO, it was not a Ptitsin of any sort, but an unknown type that made this a success? Thanks for your clarification.

4 years later...hasn't grown much, it has been dry for several years and I can't water, hasn't really flowered much at all since, this year seems promising but I will not give it another branch for pollen source since there are others around and should cross pollinate.

I know I'm digging up an old thread..but Konrad, if you see this: have you had any more success with Fofonoff and Ivanovka plums? Are they worth getting or do you have a hard time getting them to set fruit? After my experiences with Brookred, I don't want another 'ornamental' plum ha ha. What about Ptitsin #5? Is the fruit on that any good?

I think Ivanovka [above] is a good plum, this tree has too much competition...has recovered somewhat and probably getting more fruit this year. Fofonoff is also good..haven't had any for years since grafted branch/tree died. Ptitsin #5 is worth heaving, Bernie say's the best eating plum...has nice flavour and free stone, earliest ripening plum..need to be picked when they fall down and keep in the house for 2 days or so..they don't get mush like most Asian plums, a good pollinator also.

It looks like I have much better fruit set this year with my unidentified plums. Possibly due to Konrad's bottle-feeding suggestion. But now I am seeing a lot of plum curculio damage on the pea-sized fruit. How many of you are dealing with this pest and what are you spraying with & how often?

PC damage shown in photos below.