Best Time to Prune New Purple Leaf Plum Trees (Prunus Cerasifera)

[andrew wood]

Hello!

I planted four purple leaf plum trees, fairly young (about 10ft tall) in my sideyard last June. They didn't do great, because I guess they were planted the wrong time of the year? They looked very frail all the time and now in the winter they have lost all their leaves, which I assume is normal.

I need to prune the bottom branches of the trees to create walking access underneath them. I wanted to know:

1- Is it ok to do so, given the information above?

2- If it is ok to prune them, what is the best time of year to do so? I am reading contradictory information on the internet (reddit, google, my gardener). Some say in the winter where the tree is dormant and some say after the trees have bloomed.

I would greatly appreciate your expert advice here.
(Hardiness Zone 10B)

 

[TNTreeHugger]

No expert here, just a homeowner.
That doesn't look like a great place for the tree, how much space between the curb and the building?
Between the tree and that (gas?) meter?
What's in the sprayer?

 

[TNTreeHugger]

This one looks awfully close to your plumbing?
The purple leaf plums get pretty big where I live.

 

[Jed1124]

Purple Leaf Plum trees are sucker monsters. Too much taken off and they sucker like crazy. The best time to prune them to limit this is after blossom and full leaf out.
That being said, I've never seen a purple leaf with bark as light as what is shown in your pictures.
Most look like this:

 

[thenne1713]

Tree Roots can/ do crack concrete, move foundations, clog sewer pipe, move houses, split rocks/ boulders, drop leaves, clog house and street gutters... yeah, NOT a good place for a tree..