Fruit trees, toms & greenhouses - any tips?

kiss_me_now9

We got our greenhouse free, just had to dismantle and transport it ourselves. There's always someone in our area giving one away - just look for an all glass one with a good metal frame (the glass is easy enough to replace if you break a bit in transport or it's in disrepair). 

Love standing in it when it's raining. I hope you get your greenhouse soon  

FreeBear

Alkmund2 said: Pears usually have some self fertility but can benefit from another variety to increase yields whilst plums are also usually self fertile. Plums also flower before producing leaves, earlier than apples and pears, and so are more prone to late frosts or cold temperatures that slow down pollen tube growth and reduce the number of pollinators that are active. Plum fruiting can therefore be more erratic.

My cherry plum is usually the first tree to flower in the garden. It was in full bloom in February. Had put in a plumcot last year, not expecting it to do much for 3-5 years. Loads of flowers on it at the beginning of March - Just in time to get cross pollinated from the cherry plum. The victoria plum that I picked up from Lidl a few years back had done nothing bar sprouting a few leaves. A couple of weeks in to March, it decided to produce a couple of flowers. Hopefully cross pollinating with the plumcot, so I might get fruit on all three this year.

RipleyG

Lovely thread, and aren't you lucky to get fruit trees in a new garden.

Plum definitely looks like rootstock is sprouting (the bit with the thorns). Can you can find the graft on the trunk (a slightly wider section, or a slight kink where the two stems were joined)? If the thorny stems are at or below this, prune them off - they are more vigorous and will take all the energy and affect the tree long term. Wait till summer to avoid disease.

The other thing I notice is that they are grown into a fan shape, but still have the original central stem (the 'leader'). Again, that means that one will keep being the dominant/fast growing stem and will be hard to prune. You can clearly see in the photos that this main stem is thicker, and is sprouting vigorously at the top where it's been pruned. If you want to keep a nice shape, I'd cut this out right to the base - you can train a new side shoot into it's place over time if it looks gappy. Do this at the right time of year depending on the fruit type.

And good luck!