Topic: Plum tree survived!

[jennym]

A neighbour had a plum tree in his front garden, and wanted rid of it. Was going to take it down the council dump. So of course, I offered to give it a good home on the plot. The trunk is about 4" diameter, the tree probably 6 or more years old. Well he dug it up earlier this year - I carted it over to the allotment (boy was it heavy!) and spent 4 hours digging the hole and manoeuvering the thing into place. I was worried it wouldn't take - lots of root had been severed and it was so large - but it's in blossom now, and if I keep an eye on it I reckon I've got a good freebie there.

[SMP1704]

Well done - love the trainazium support that you have going on there ;D

The plums will taste sweeter knowing that you rescued the tree.

[jennym]

They certainy will taste good I hope!

It's not support you can see in the picture, but festooning lines attached to the branches to bend them down in the hope of producing more fruiting points.
I can see your logic though, but I think there is enough root there to keep it stable.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Fruit trees are pretty tough. I have two pears which I bought in pots, when I didn't know much about fruit. They've never thrived at all, though they did finally produce a few odd pears last year. A few weeks ago I dug one up and found that the original roots had all died, and it only had a few mingy little things to keep it going. They're both alive anyway, I suppose they'll grow decent root systems in time.