Sick Plum Tree

[Sinbad7]

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with my pear tree and how to treat it please?  As you can see, I hope, the leaves are curly and the plums stunted.

Photo's here:
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z284/sunnyday_012/Allotment%202008/016.jpg

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z284/sunnyday_012/Allotment%202008/017.jpg

Sinbad

[Sinbad7]

[manicscousers]

are there lots of ants running up and down, it reminds me of when ours was loaded with greenfly, absolutely heaving, ants everywhere, and it looked like that

[HappyCatz]

mine looks the same and when I looked it up in 'The Fruit Expert', it said it was greenfly.  I think you can spray to get rid of them but i don't want to do that while I still have some fruit on the tree.  I get the impression that it is a bad years for plums as the weather was so cold when the blossom was out :(

[Robert_Brenchley]

It warmed up while my tree was in flower, so there's some fruit, but not as much as usual. It does look like aphid damage, in which case the backs of the leaves will be covered with them. A massive infestation is usually a sign that the three's somehow sick or weak.

[Palustris]

One thing you can do is to put a physical barrier around the trunk to stop the ants climbing up and maintaining the aphid herds. We use a Grease band and the sticky paint which comes with it. Slightly flare out the wrapping away from the tree so that the ants cannot bypass it. If the aphids are too bad then we use a horticultural soft soap insecticide which is harmless to us and other insects.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Put a tit feeder on the tree. If it's aphids, they'll soon cotton on. But check first, it might be something else altogether.

[Sinbad7]

Many thanks for all your replies, will inspect the tree tomorrow.  I know it does need a good prune and lost most of the flowers in the cold snap so maybe it needs a bit of TLC.  Do like the idea of a tit feeder on it though.

Sinbad

[Sinbad7]

Checked today and there was no sign of anything on the leaves at all.  I did notice though how brittle the leaves are.  Also on some of the branches where the leaves don't seem to be affected I have normal size and normal looking plums ???

Sinbad