We came back from our vacation after 6 days and found broken limbs in the plum tree. My son said it was due to lots of storms and wind. Have there been big wind storms in the last 6-7 days? I'm sure being overloaded with fruit increases the likelihood of breakage. On limb is completely broken off in the center of the picture. The other one cracked at the top right. Some loaded plum trees didn't break though.
JohN S
PDX OR
No wind storms in PDX area this month to date.
One unusual feature of the current heat wave is that it is not a wind event; usually there are strong gorge east winds during 90+F extended periods.
There has been a light breeze from the NW during the period.
Any one property can experience a wind gust above the regional average.
But most likely your breakage is due to fruit load.
Perhaps the phenomenon of extra water transport during hot weather has contributed, but this usually shows up on
large older trees like maple, oak, etc. where the lower horizontal branches break off due to extra water weight.
Regarding picture of plum tree @ John
If those are branches of shiro (?) then I highly recommend freezing them because they can be kind of messy and time consuming to get the pit freed. I had 2 kids here from Vegas, one of which loved sour and thawed out shiro plums, and not the other. I also picked a bucket full of freshly picked (almost fully yellow) and for a meeting involving young singles and it emptied fast. Fresh or frozen a precisely picked date for these would be before the little air pocket inside gets waterlogged.
Thanks for the info. Yes, I think my son doesn't pay attention to wind storms the way that we would. I had removed more plums from that tree than I ever had before, but it apparently wasn't enough. No extra watering, just "the straw that broke the camel's back."
John S
PDX OR
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