The trees and the allotment looked very different when I took the following photo  thirteen years later in 2017.

As you can see we have three plum trees, The largest one on the right is Oullins Gage and the one at the front is Marjories Seedling. The third tree which isn't really visible in the photo above is a Victoria. You can probably tell from the photo above that this tree was planted after the other too.

It is more visible below.

All three trees crop well although they tend to have a heavy copping year followed by as leaner one. Being in flower early they also can suffer from late frosts damaging the flowers.

A few years after we had planted the plums we thought that they had suddenly died. After having flowered well in spring and set a reasonable amount of fruit,  in summer our plum tree looked as though it was dying.

The plums and leaves on the tree withered and fell off and the leaves were brown and shrivelled.

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The tree recovered later in the year and produced some new leaves but no fruit.

Our tree suffered in this way for two years until when browsing the Royal Horticultural Society's web site, I discovered the possible cause. It was being attacked by Brachycaudus Helichrysi or plum leaf curling aphid.

 To visit the RHS web site for more details of this pest click here.

The treatment is to give your tree a winter wash.  This should be carried out on a still winter's day. If possible you should spray two or three times, the first time in December with repeat treatments in January and February. The wash is plant oil based and is an organic preparation, however it will scorch young buds and leaves so should be used when the tree is fully dormant.

We rarely managed to spray more than once but it seems to do the trick. We also spray our other fruits trees at the same time as a preventative measure.

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