Plant-A-Day 2020 (Day 62) Plum “Beauty”

I believe this tree was purchased in 2014 and it is already big and productive. As with most of my fruit trees and brambles, it came from Raintree Nurseries. The tree is glorious in bloom and very fruitful, but we haven’t found a way to squirrel-proof the tree, so we hardly get any of the ripe fruit. The squirrels grab all of them just a few days before they would be truly ripe.

Originally, I had planned to espalier this tree, but it got away from me before I had the chance! It is easily twelve feet tall now and has few lower branches, so I don’t think I could go back and fix the problem I created by letting it grow on its own.

You can see from the photo above how much the tree has grown. It is in full bloom now, March 15, 2020. I’m not sure if enough pollinators are out and we had a pretty cold frost last night.

My plans for this tree in 2020 are to figure out a way to protect the fruit so I actually get to eat some of it! I tried tying on fruit protecting nylon bags last year and secured the bags to the branches, but the squirrels 1) bit into the bags and 2) pulled the fruit loose, but left it hanging in the bags. There isn’t really a way to keep the squirrels from reaching the tree, so the plan has to be to keep them away from the fruit with netting and scaffolding and possibly some explosive devices.