I can't say I wasn't warned. I went outside to thin plums and was greeted with this.
There are still plenty of plums. I thinned the rest to about one per foot. I wanted to thin earlier but they were too high in the tree. The fruit weight changed that.
The broken branch is now cleanly cut off. Not a big loss - I was planning to cut it after fruit season is over, to let a graft take over.
...lost about the same thing myself a day ago 
So I spent the next couple hours thinning, and thinning (and more thinning) on 3 of 4 Japanese plum trees. They’ve set as heavy as I’ve ever seen! I thinned over 5 gallons (measured by the bucket) off each tree … and left them a lot closer than a foot apart.
So, if you don’t thin ...which reminds me I’ve one tree left.. you get serious damage from limb loss and much smaller fruit to boot.
Good post - and nice to see you’ve a backup graft to cover your loss ...and what a beautifully shaped tree 
It’s weird, Jafar, last year was a ..breakdown year for most fruit trees in our area, however my plums set very light. They’re definitely making up for it this year!
Sure hate to see that level of damage and waste ...yet another good example of the value of pruning and thinning…
Got my last plum tree thinned this morning, multi-grafted and a super set - so I finally got the pollination right … but won’t likely be around to taste them ...with the place set to ‘close’ on July 9th. But, I’ll know what I like, and how to make it happen 
Strangely enough, the tree that inspired this post dried out and looks dead now. My other plum trees look OK. It's been 90s and 100 in my yard multiple times lately.
This tree also has several levels of holes in the trunk, surrounding the tree. The holes are about 3mm diam, uniform rows of holes. I'm thinking insect boring under the trunk, and maybe woodpecker going after the insect.
Maybe the overbearing was the tree's last effort at reproduction. Or maybe, the overbearing sucked up all of the water, resulting in the leaves dehydrating?
Oh well. It's a chance to plant a new tree there next year 🙂
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
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