Let’ me ‘splain it to you, Lucy. I took these photos back in early June. The tree no longer has any fruit on it because they all turned that strange purplish color and then dropped to the ground. For you serious investigators here is a close up of the leaves. The fruit only had a single pit or seed inside of them which made me think they might be some sort of weird plum.
So, do you still think it’s a Paw Paw?
And if it is, what am I doing wrong to this tree? How can I make it hold on to its fruit?
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Not sure but you could contact your local extension office or check at the feed store or church? Of course they will laugh as soon as you leave shaking their heads…”crazy lady…how did she not know” I had the same problem with peas the first time I planted them! Thick beautiful & luch plants but, wheres the peas?…..oh, under the leaves LOL!
I looked up olive trees, but the leaves look very different. Then I looked up sandhill plum, and didn’t find many pics. The leaves look a little more like that, but I couldn’t tell for sure. I’ll probably be thinking about this until someone finds the right answer.
It looks exactly like our plum tree. Italian prune plums. I don’t think the photo of the yellow and pinkish color is the way they would naturally look when doing well. I think those were sick plums and in a good year they wouldn’t turn that color, they would go straight to purple.
Is it getting lots of water? The tree is stressed and dropped the fruit.
Kinda like me.
Could it possibly be a damson tree? It’s hard for me to tell from comparing photos online, but I found one from a few years ago that looked very similar to your tree and its fruit. I guess the damson is a plum tree, and the fruit is tart and hearty, according to Google.
April I think you need to call Hank Kimble the local county extension agent or maybe Sam Drucker down in Hooterville, they would know. Oh you know who I bet could tell you? Arnold Ziffel.
The leaves don’t look like an olive tree. Dang. That’s what I wanted it to be.
Sand plums are round. Paw paws have lots of seeds – I think they might REALLY be a berry.
Are you sure those leaves aren’t a gray-green color?? LOL – I am a one note.
It looks like a minature mango…it’s probably not of course, but that’s what it looks like!
The leaves look like a plum tree, the fruit seems to set like a plum. Is the pit flat and almond-shaped? The fruit doesn’t look quite like an italian plum, and around here (west coast of Canada) they ripen in the fall.
plum, Damson plum
Italian plums are much darker purple/almost black.
Definitely a plum. Those suckers – hundreds of varieties of them – grow out here in western Washington. We had three different kinds at our last house.
that said, I have no idea why yours are dropping. I’ll bet your extention agent would know.
Just returned from Israel…definitely not an olive tree…wrong leaves.
Definitely not olive, my parents had one in the backyard. It is a messy, messy tree. And if it was olive it isn’t worth the effort, did you know they are poisonous unless you soak them in lyme?! Not worth risking everyone’s life, let the professionals handle it.
Maybe plum. I can’t wait to hear what it is, this feels like a Nancy Drew novel. LOL
Looking at the leaves I’m still thinking prune plum – mine dropped it’s fruit too so I’m looking forward to the solution.
I think they are plums…. that are in need of TONS OF WATER! LOL Plum trees will drop their fruit pretty quick if they dont get enough to drink.. Try running a slow flowing hose on them for a couple of hours every other day… yes I am serious my dear…
Well, so much for my theory. Are there any nearby old farmers? They’d likely know. I’ll ask the ones I know when I get a chance.
You can’t try to identify that tree by the looks of the fruit in the pictures. Those are not healthy or mature (fully grown) fruit. The middle fruit picture that is purplish is on the healthy side (but maybe stunted) and looks the way my plums look when they are still growing and ripening. The other fruit are yellowed, sickly, stunted fruit. Don’t use them for ID. The leaves and twigs and description of the pit are plum.
Hey April, I’m giving away pots on my blog!
I sent a picture to an expert and it is a Paw Paw. Mystery solved.
Definitely an Italian plum/prune. I agree with Clayvessel -the photo of the yellowish ones are the weaker ones that are not maturing and ready to drop. Don’t use that photo to I.D.
To be sure, a paw paw has many seeds, vs. a plum’s single pit. And paw paw leaves are longer and shaped differently.
Your photo with the purple/green fruit is an Italian plum that is about a third ripe. They don’t get much bigger at that stage, either, unlike the large, round Asian plums that are more common at the market.
But boy, get that tree happy and Italian plums are still delicious. We used to have 6 of these trees and we’d eat them whenever we went outside. When you have a bumper crop, cut them in half, remove the pit, and dehydrate them – most delicious dried prunes ever!
Enough with the tree already!! Can we get back to stories by Clay, lol? Sorry, I have extra weekend surf time, and I am laughing as I’ve looked at these tree pictures WAAAY to many times this weekend. (all meant in fun, I really enjoy your blog which I recently came across)
I say to bite into it, if it’s sour they aren’t ready, if you get sick, it’s not a plum.
That’s cowboy candy…on second thought, I don’t know?
It’s a money tree…. Don’t tell anyone. It will solve your problems.
It definately is not a Papaw. The leaves indicate a cherry of some sort or a plum. I have never seen any that shape, but there is a first time for everything.
We had plums like that in Japan. And here’s what we did with them. Put a bag of raw sugar in the bottom of a large jar. Pierce the plums all around with a pin. Drop them on top of the sugar. Cover with your preferred white lightnin’. Wait three months. Enjoy straight or with ginger ale. Mmm-mmm-mmm. It’s called umeshu in Japanese, plum liqueur in English. Pure delight in any language!
Lois,
I have two huge old plum trees and I’m gonna do that!
Maybe you should just re-name the mystery trees “firewood”, and plant something else in their place.
It’s obvious that aliens came down and planted a new kind of plum-pawpaw-mango tree!
I’m siding with all the italian plum people. And oh, save that tree, get some professional help at the extension. Some of my best ‘canned food’ memories as a child are canned italian plums, lovely magenta sweet syrup – tastylicious.
The leaves aren’t quite like Italian Plum. Nor is the fruit growing in the same way. It reminds me of apricots the way the flesh looks.
I am a beekeeper, so of course I think it has to do with pollination. Do you see honeybees around it? If plants don’t get pollinated well, the fruit will not hold. Just one possiblity.
I just found lots of unripe fruit on the ground under my italian plum tree. There are wild blackberries nearby and the bees seem to love those. Could I still have a pollination problem, or do you think like someone above that it is a water issue. I haven’t really watered it much this summer.
OH C’MON!!!!! IT IS A PAW PAW ALREADY!!! Google it April.
http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu
Here is a website for you. Kentucky University has a whole department program dedicated to Paw Paws. You will find anything you ever wanted to know about Paw Paws.
Italian Plum….PLEASE!!…….ROFLMAO!!!!!!
Oh Oh Oh!!!!!
This coming weekend is the annual open house at the fruit research center in Olathe!!! Quick road trip!!! Take pics and a sample branch from your tree. And then take pictures and blog about all the pretty flowers there! You might make Ms. Roach jealous!
Here’s the link:
http://www.johnson.ksu.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=681#Free_Seminars
And don’t forget to wear purple! (Did I forget to mention it’s the Kansas STATE U. research fields? Bwa ha ha!)
I would not are convinced that we should be putting on loincloths made of dingo skin, as good as we’ve been prepared to formulate. The we realize this is valuation physical exertion, ensure that you superb.