Trouble With My Damson Trees

 So if you have read this blog for any length of time you'll know that I love damsons. When ripe they're up there with some of my favourite fruits. One reason why I put about another 14 in this year in our new hedge in the second field. 


Unfortunately, other than the one in the photo above (a Merryweather - my favourite as it is a "freestone" damson), the others don't seem to be doing so well in the orchard that I planted 8 years ago. 

One seems to have reverted back to it's rootstock and is growing like crazy. But no fruit and very spiky. I'm not sure if I should try grafting or budding this one over to something else, or to rip it out with the digger and plant something else completely, especially as I'll have more damsons than I'll know what to do with with once the hedge as established. 


The second had started growing with a serious lead. Duel domancy I think it's called where it ended up growing two leaders. Unfortunately this has lead to a weak tree, I did some serious pruning to try to shape the tree and then noticed the huge split in the main trunk.

Again I'm tempted to rip this one out and start again with it! 


The third tree just hasn't really grown at all, considering this one is nearly 8 years old I think it could just be a dud. The land around it has been used to store a bit of rubble, so I wonder if that's had an impact on it's growth, compaction of roots and stuff. It had lots of suckers growing around it. 

What do you think I should do - try to save them? Or cut my loses as I already have plenty of damsons coming on and plant something else?

### Update  as I wrote this post on Sunday. The split tree split more so it was just a stump so I took the decision to rip it out. The spindly tree I did the same to and so far I've left the one growing from it's rootstock. At worst I'll take it down in the winter and use the time for some green woodwork as it's got a good dimeter on it in the trunk now. 

Just need to decided what to replace the other two with now! Plums? A better Quince? Grafted Hawthorne? 

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