Plum tree pruning

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:56 am

I bought a TOka plum. Large, healthy pot grown plants, with a good root system. THere is only one problem: It looks to me that who ever was pruning it in the nursery, used 2 or 3 different pruning styles on the tree. Everything ive read suggests an open center style pruning, which I can tell you (even with my little expercience), that this is NOT said style of pruning. Can someone suggest how to get this thing back into shape?

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 3:32 pm

Open centers are old school teaching when trees were standard (huge).

All fruit trees should have only one "leader" going straight up.
Eliminate the second branch that competes with the central leader.

Nowadays, with most fruit trees, nearly horizontal branches produce more fruit than "narrow-crotch" branches.

Apples are the best example of that, but plums also benefit from nearly horizontal branches.

In our young orchard we even used wooden spreaders to get the supple young branches out a bit more.
As wood hardens, spreaders can be removed.

Sunshine and air get into a tree better to ripen the fruit.

Barb

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 3:54 pm

IM going to have to chop it up pretty good though to shape it properlly arent I? Would it be better to cut underneath where the 2 leaders start, to the nearest bud, or choose a leader from the 2? THe worse part is, I cant find anything specific in regards to my Toka plum, just plums in general (which seems to be really condractory, even the legit sources).

EDIT - isnt it to late to prune it now?

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:24 pm

nice plum! Not sure the best method for pruning.

Jubaea · Post by **Jubaea** » Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:55 am

It's probabbly not a good idea to do much pruning now. I would only take off broken branchs if there are any. I think it would be best to let it establish its roots this year and start shaping it next year. It looks like it was pruned by a machine and cut at a certain level. I would try to keep it down it size so that you can actually pick the fruit on the tree.

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:28 am

THanks Tim and Jubea!

Here is the thing. Ive read generally fruit trees should be pruned just before or jsut after the buds swell ( generally early spring/ late winter depending). THe problem with plums, is that they are apparently highly suceptable to fungus/disease ( silver leaf fungus., canker etc) if pruned in winter. For plums, It seems to be recommended to prune when the tree has already leafed out.

Ive also read that any fruit tree should be pruned according to root mass, during planting. The pot is roughly 3 - 5 gallons, and the tree is about 10 feet tall - definitely too much top growth for the size of the roots (i did check them, it has a pretty good root system. It was definitely grafted on a potted rootstock, opposed to bare root).

Another thing to concider is that my TOka is a Japanese x american plum hybrid (prunus americana). These trees tend to have a spreading habit, rather then upright (like most european plum cultivars). ITs hard to tell by the way the poor tree was hacked apart. Im more then likely going to be pruning it as an open center, to allow the tree to grow in a more "natural" shape, and to aid in picking. I measured from the soil line up about 3 feet. This ends up exactly an inch above where the lowest branches end, and the center truck continues. From what ive read it seems the right hight to cut the top off. Th eonly problem is, thats removing literally half the tree. Removing the other lower branches to create the 3 or 4 "spoked" shape, will end up removing about 3/4 of the tree ( but should balance out the tree to root mass ratio.

I dont believe I will be able to create a proper central leader/modified central leader shape, with the way it has been pruned. The spaces between the scaffold bracnches is too far apart from what is reccomended through reading. I would still end up removing roughly 3/4 of the tree to get the proper spacing and shape.

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:58 am

OK, I finally got ahold of my neighbor, whom has 2 plum trees himself (including an orchard in Italy! ). He came over and gave me a crash course in pruning/shaping in a vase (he recommended this for me, because my trees are in the same bed as my perennials and veggie garden, it allows way more sun through the trees ).

So no problem (other then giving me crap for buying my tree from Canadian tire lol), other then he suggested planting the tree a foot deeper then it already is. He said its because of the cold we can get here. THe thing is, dispite his 70 years experience, I dont think hes aware of how trees are grafted now. Im pretty sure IF I plant it that deep, Ill be surrounded by root shoots. I think he may be speaking of NON grafted trees, then I would agree.