Puget Sound area.
I received a hybrid plum tree about 7-8 years ago... one of those that has 4 fruit varieties grafted onto some generic root stock. It got to about 6 ft. tall and generated a BUNCH (too much) fruit. Which was great. In fact, 3 years ago it got so heavy a main limb cracked. The thing survived, but since it has gotten more and more of those upward 'branches' and less and less 'fruit'. Last year, almost nothing.
I've tried 'pruning' but clearly I'm doing something wrong because that only seems to be encouraging more branches. I've asked at the local nursery and they talk about 'spurs' vs. 'shoots' vs. 'laterals', but obviously, I'm not getting it. It's still only 6 ft. tall but it's maybe twice as wide around and it looks like h-e-l-l. I actually did try 'pruning' over the summer (which I was told was the best time to encourage fruit vs. winter pruning) but you can see all the new 'verticals' that have shot up in just the past 6 months. It's outta control.
So... I'm attaching some piccies and hope to get advice on winter pruning to try to get back the -fruit- and stop the -branches-. Hopefully they are detailed enough that you can see what needs doing. If not please let me know what is needed and I'll re-shoot.
OR... maybe these things aren't meant to 'produce' for a long time? It's small enough that if it's not salvageable I could rip it out and start over. I would prefer to correct it, however... the fruit is very good.
In one sentence: How do I tell -what- to cut so I get fruit? I can't tell the difference between the branches that generate fruit and the ones that just generate more branches.
TIA
I received a hybrid plum tree about 7-8 years ago... one of those that has 4 fruit varieties grafted onto some generic root stock. It got to about 6 ft. tall and generated a BUNCH (too much) fruit. Which was great. In fact, 3 years ago it got so heavy a main limb cracked. The thing survived, but since it has gotten more and more of those upward 'branches' and less and less 'fruit'. Last year, almost nothing.
I've tried 'pruning' but clearly I'm doing something wrong because that only seems to be encouraging more branches. I've asked at the local nursery and they talk about 'spurs' vs. 'shoots' vs. 'laterals', but obviously, I'm not getting it. It's still only 6 ft. tall but it's maybe twice as wide around and it looks like h-e-l-l. I actually did try 'pruning' over the summer (which I was told was the best time to encourage fruit vs. winter pruning) but you can see all the new 'verticals' that have shot up in just the past 6 months. It's outta control.
So... I'm attaching some piccies and hope to get advice on winter pruning to try to get back the -fruit- and stop the -branches-. Hopefully they are detailed enough that you can see what needs doing. If not please let me know what is needed and I'll re-shoot.
OR... maybe these things aren't meant to 'produce' for a long time? It's small enough that if it's not salvageable I could rip it out and start over. I would prefer to correct it, however... the fruit is very good.
In one sentence: How do I tell -what- to cut so I get fruit? I can't tell the difference between the branches that generate fruit and the ones that just generate more branches.
TIA