The Plum Orchard: taking care of Ume plum trees in Yokohama

I know I’ll be busy in June. June is the month when Ume plums are harvested. After picking, the fresh fruits must be processed promptly for pickles, liquors, compotes, etc. I’ll be BUSY in the kitchen filled with sweet scents of plums … Though, none of these fruits are from Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森. Reason is simple. We Lovers of Niiharu 新治市民の森愛護会 have problems to collect enough quantity of Ume plums. It’s not because 70 ha of Niiharu Forest does not have plum orchard. It has 3 orchards of Ume. Nor it’s due to Lovers do not have access to these 3 places. Lovers have requests from the City of Yokohama and the landlord to take care of the sites. Yet none of these places bears adequate fruits.

Though, every year these two Ume trees
 for pink and white flowers are beautiful
 at the entrance of Niiharu Citizen Forest.
 They are private property, not a part of the Citizen Forest.

A tree standing at the entrance of Ikebuchi Open Space いけぶち広場 is the only Ume plum tree producing sufficient plums for about 3 jars of Ume liquor. One of the senior Lovers, a lady who’s in charge of such matters, prepare them in June. During high summer when we spend uber-busy weekends to mow the forest floors, her liquor’s waiting at the end of the day as a prize of hard work. Needless to say, the jars are empty by November. Pity. “You see, we had more Ume fruits until 10 or so years ago.” “Oh, yeah. Niiharu Forest has 3 orchards. We were very busy allocating enough time to collect fruits.” “Why can’t we have such amount of prize these days? They even do not flower much these days.” That’s the problem.

The only productive Ume tree in Niiharu.
 It flowers again this year.
 I hope we can have some fruits from it …

The only profusely flowering Ume orchard in Niiharu, out of three.
 The place too has pretty flowers constantly as this year.
 But the amount of fruits out of them is limited.
 The trees here are for flowers, not fruits、I guess.

Actually, roughly 3 or 4 years ago, the City of Yokohama had a problem of Plum Pox Virus. The disease started in 2009 in Tokyo and spread to Yokohama. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry of Japan, the only possible treatment is to uproot and burn the affected trees. Er … worse than with COVID-19 for humans … The wards in the northeast of Yokohama, Tsurumi 鶴見, Kanagawa 神奈川, and Nishi 西 Wards found the infected trees. The City Office was super-alarmed. The greenery and private gardens there received administrative order to follow the direction of the Ministry. The City also arranged numerous training courses for professional and amateur gardeners how to take care of plum trees under the threat of virus. Hmmmmmm … now that I think about it, it was reminiscent of present-day policies about COVID-19 … Luckily, the other wards of Yokohama, including Midori Ward 緑区 where Niiharu resides, have not received the virus problem for plums, at least so far. But, the hub-bub became a nudge for Lovers to take action for Niiharu’s unproductive plum orchards.

In Japanese proverb, it is said that “The fools who cut cherry trees, the fools who don’t cut plum trees.” Surely, plum trees spread their branches and boughs to whichever direction disorderly as they like. They are often vigorous, if not productive. Left them to their own devices, between late March to early November neglected Ume trees have lots of leaves in a jumbled manner. The condition is certainly of “Closed spaces with poor ventilation; Crowded places with many people leaves nearby; Close-contact settings such as close-range conversations.” It seems to me, many viruses for illness love such conditions … To prevent the spread of plum pox virus, the first line of defense is avoiding such 3-C and wearing masks … er, no, “Prune, prune, PRUNE!”

Hmmmmmmm,
 once the way branches spread reaches this level of “whicheva,”
 it’s something of divine art work …

So, Lovers of Niiharu engaged in pruning Ume orchards last fall. It’s easier said than done, I tell you. Plum is deciduous tree but flowers early starting from January. Their life cycle allows us a tiny window to take care of the mess of branches. That is roughly 2 weeks of October to November, almost immediately after they’ve started shedding their autumn leaves. Inevitably, we abandoned the pruning for the 3rd orchard this time … “Well, trees are there. Give us a break.” The next problem was the method of pruning. All 3 plum orchards in Niiharu produce unsatisfactory yield. Seniors of Niiharu Lovers debated how much pruning to be done and settled with “HEAVY ones!” for the least fruitful orchard. We brought chainsaws in the orchard to cut the main boughs and pruned relentlessly for the remaining branches.

Cut here, here and here!

First, I hesitated, then, it became a sort of pleasure to CUT! “Hey, Naomi, prune that upright branch!” OK. Done, then, “Next one too!” But it looks not so tangled with the other ones … “No, no. You’ll see their next year’s growth surely collides with the neighbors.” Woooooow. With the thunderous sounds of chainsaws, one plum orchard in Niiharu became the place of very shortened trees with sporadic branches. It was a strangely relaxing scenery, with piles of cut boughs and branches on the ground. Will they flower coming spring? I’ve waited.

Hair cut!

We’ve cut this much …

Then, this February, those remaining branches have pretty 5-petal flowers, smelling nice. Hurrah! “It takes several years before we know the result of hard pruning, Naomi.” OK, OK, OK. But the resilient plum tree orchards could resume producing lots of flowers, and then fruits. Maybe it’s after COVID-19 becoming a familiar seasonal ailment, like flu …I keep crossing my fingers for everything.

Wow! Blossomed!

Year 1 after heavy pruning …

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North 北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420

Niiharu Administrative Office / Satoyama Exchange Center 新治管理事務所・里山交流センター
Phone: 045-931-4947
Fax: 045-937-0898
Email: info@niiharu.jp
http://www.niiharu.jp/