Growing a Plum Tree from Seed - 51 Month Update

Hey everyone, it's Rob the Backyard Gardener and it's time to get you updated on my plum tree that I've grown from seed and started on Christmas day 2017. Hey everyone, Rob the Backyard Gardener. Welcome back to my channel. As many of you know, I'm starting to get a lot of my grown from seed fruit tree series kind of caught up. So today's is going to update you on my plum tree, which is now just over four and a third years old. That being said, the last update was almost a year ago. Matter of fact, actually more than a year ago back in March of 2021. And I told you then that I had had it in the ground for about a year and it had been doing great, putting on a lot of height. That thing was four feet tall when we put it in the ground. And then it grew all the way up to 12 feet at the last update. Well, for today's update, it's still right around 14 feet, but I had to take three feet off the top because this thing was growing like a weed. And I'll even show you some of the problems we had because of how fast it grew. That being said, in the last update, I talked about whether or not it was going to be a pollinating or self-pollinating plum tree, or would it be one that would require a cross pollinator? It was a black plum grown from an organic grocery store from seed. So we don't know what it's actually going to be, but because it was a black plum and because most black plums are self-pollinating, I'm hoping that whatever hybrid or black plum hybrid it could become, that maybe it's self-pollinating. But we've taken steps since the last video to make sure that no matter what happens, whether it's self-pollinating or needs a cross pollinator, that we have one of those. And I'll show you that tree as well. Anyway, at the end of the day, keep in mind that plum trees grown from seed take a minimum of four years to even produce flowers, as many as eight years if they're going to produce flowers, and some grown from seed never do. Fingers crossed that ours actually flowers down the road. All right, we've talked long enough. Let's go take a look at this plum tree I've grown from seed. All right, here is the plum tree I started from seed. And take a look at this majestic, fast-growing plum tree. Man, this thing is a beast. I had to actually voice over this part because the wind was pretty substantial, as you can see. But man, we took several feet off the top, and I'll get to that in a second. But I absolutely love the way the foliage comes out on this tree. It just gives it such a majestic look. And I just can't get over how many feet and how fast this tree has grown over the last couple of years that it's been in the soil. Because remember, we started this guy in a pot. So obviously, I'm very pleased with the progress and the growth on this tree. I've been mentioned a couple of times about how nice the leaves are, the thick foliage is. So I think I'll just take a second to kind of show you some of the leaves. I think that you'll appreciate just the clusters. It's crazy how many clusters or little clusters of leaves there are on these trees. And I was taking a quick peek at it while I'm showing you these leaves, and it does look like it might have a slight nutrient deficiency. So for those wondering, before this video, I took a look at this tree before I recorded, and I decided to go ahead and amend the soil. I know I've talked about not doing too much fertilizing on a young fruit tree, especially when it hasn't blossomed or bloomed yet, but I've decided to do that. So I just added basically a little foliar spray comprised of some Epsom salt and a little bit of water. Now, I also said this tree grows fast, and it has a lot of these little branch spurs. And I don't know what they're from or why they're forming so quickly on the branch, but this thing, and I mentioned it in the intro, it was growing so fast that it was tied to a stake when I first planted it. And you can see right here where the tie actually started growing into the bark of the tree and was causing damage. So I had to cut that away. It actually wrapped all the way around, and it was tough to remove without damaging any of the internal parts of the tree. But I was able to get it done. Now, going back to some of these other sprouts, I've got to do a good job of pulling these off more frequently. They come right off. I just pinch them off because we don't want any low growth here. And I know on a fruit tree, it's nice having lower branches for fruiting possibilities, but until we know that this tree is going to fruit, there's no reason to have this extra growth sucking life away from the more mature branches, or maybe the branches that might end up getting some fruiting spurs. So I'm just going to pull the rest of these away really quick. And once I get all this low stuff done and pulled off, we're going to leave this alone for now because the rest of the ones, like I said, I'm not quite sure what these other little branches up here above this Y are. And hopefully, these are the ones that get some fruiting spurs later on. Now, I will remove a couple of these branches that are growing in towards the middle canopy of the tree. There's no reason to have any branches crossing. So all these ones, I'm just going to pick off as well and keep this canopy open. Obviously, on fruit trees, you do want more of an open canopy. That way, when it does blossom and those blossoms turn into fruit sets, we get some sunlight on them. I will tell you, I was inspecting all these tall branches and just looking to see if we possibly had any fruiting spurs. And I'm not really familiar with how to identify them right now, but I do have another plum tree that I'll show you in a minute that I was able to take a look at. And I inspected these with the hope that maybe we'd get some fruiting spurs this spring, but we didn't. So now that you guys got a pretty good look at how well this plum tree is doing, let me take you over to my Mentley plum that I got from a nursery last year. So as you can see by the tag here, this is a Mentley plum tree. I got this at a nursery here locally, and it's actually produced us a couple of fruits last year. We got three fruits off it for being how small that it is. But I got it because it's a good cross pollinator. I'm hoping that in the event that my black plum tree that I've grown from seed does need a cross pollinator, that this guy can assist with that. Now I made mention a couple seconds ago, we got three plums off this last year, and it already set some more plums again this year. This guy is supposed to be a pretty prolific plum producer. And I went ahead and took a look at all of the different little plums that we have set here. And by my last official count, I believe we have seven or eight. I got eight one time, I got seven another time, and I got seven another time. So definitely excited that we might get a handful of plums. And for those wondering, I've talked about it in my peach tree grown from seed update series. The plum curculio is a big time pest in my yard, and I am taking measures to prevent that. But ironically, even though it's called the plum curculio, it actually doesn't mess with plum trees. So at least that's what they say. So I'm hoping it doesn't mess with this guy. I'm hoping we get a handful of fruits. If we get more than three, that'll be awesome. Anyway, I just wanted to show you the monthly plum tree that I got because it may end up being a bigger part of this series down the road, should we need a cross pollinator. All right, we'll just head right back over to the black plum that I've grown from seed one more time. Give you one quick look at how thick the base is. Crazy how much girth this thing has on it for only being just over four years old. And yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. This thing is a beast. And if we can get flowers on it next year, that would make me super happy. Well, I think that's going to wrap it up for today's grown from seed plum tree update. Hopefully you guys enjoyed seeing the progress on that tree. Hopefully it inspires you to plant maybe some of your own. I can't believe how fast that thing has grown. It's bigger than some of the apple trees I started years before. And speaking of those apple trees, we will get you updated on my citrus, avocados, pear trees, apple trees, kiwi vines, you name it. They're all looking fantastic now that it's early spring. Anyway, if you enjoyed the video, I'd appreciate that thumbs up, and as always, happy gardening, and thanks for watching.