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@theapplefarmer Lucky you. My Opal plums hardly ever fruit. Victoria puts on a fab flower show every spring but has never born a single fruit. Only Hauszwetsche occasionally gives me a pound or two.

@WesternExposure I wonder if it could be bullfinches eating the flower buds on your Opal each winter? They don't go for Victoria usually.

@theapplefarmer I don't know, Con. It's possible but that's more of a problem on the Burren where I know all my friends have trouble with bullfinches eating the apple buds. My apples generally do okay. Maybe it's climatic, as in out here it's a whole lot wetter than where you are. Or proximity to the coast (10km). My plums and pears flower super early and then tend to get whacked by (salt)storms, frost, hail or lack of pollination due to cold and wet weather.

@WesternExposure It was just when you mentioned the Victoria bloom, but not the Opal (by inference), that I thought bullfinches may be consuming buds. All those other factors you mention would also result in little or no fruits.

@ToniScott I have both here this year. But Vics are a long way off ripe yet.