Why are our plum trees dying

Question

We have 3 dead plum trees in different locations in a mixed orchard in Sicily! They have died with a small amount of fruit on, and the leaves are still brown and hanging like fireblight on pears! The branches and trunk on 2 of them have oozed out some gum, my main worry is we do not want this to spread if it is an infection! We have other plum trees that have cropped very well, the best of these also has large globs of gum near the base of the trunk, its healthy is this anything to worry about? Can anybody throw any light on to why they have died, and what has caused it? Many thanks!

Answer 1

My recently deceased Sicilian mother would be proud if I answered this for you but I don't want to speculate. I will only tell you what I know..... we had a couple of plum trees in our back yard that died and we discovered that these fruit bearing trees along with peach trees do not like to grow when there are evergreens around. So if you have anything like cedars, pines, or spruce trees (near by) these carry a blight that peach and plum trees are not immune to. So you can not have these types of trees close by. I guess it would be interesting to notice if these tree may be the closest distance to evergreens nearby of all of the plum trees in your orchard.



  Incidently, my grandfather was Giuseppi Salerno and he live in a town Mount Aneo or Eneo near Palermo (not sure if this is the correct spelling?)   Greetings from here in New York !!!

Answer 2

mine has as well, its the first year its done this. iv had it 4 years and i have had some really nice plums.could be the really hot weather we have had.