Need Pruning Advice Small Hybrid Plum Tree

[suntower]

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'llbearealclimberoneday]

Around here, we prune them just after the last frost for fruit production, or late summer for overall size control. IME, they are fairly tolerant to pruning, but there is a right way.

Without seeing it in person, its kind of hard to tell what is what with the limb overlap.

The green is the trunk and main 4 branches. Your going to want to keep the main part in a wine glass shape. The smallest horizontal shoots at the bottom can come off. Them prune the entire canopy back to a lateral some where around the halfway Point length wise (blue lines) also, clean up any branches that rub, have cracks or die back. A slow release fertilizer would be a good idea if it hasn't had anything applied. Without a soil sample or knowing what local soil conditions are like, I couldn't recommend anything.

If you cut all that off at once, it may die, or not produce fruit. But if the branch that broke doesn't compartmentalize , it could die from that too. They are typically pruned yearly, so results are a gamble. However, if it doesn't produce its worth a try or a replacement

 

[suntower]

Around here, we prune them just after the last frost for fruit production, or late summer for overall size control. IME, they are fairly tolerant to pruning, but there is a right way.

Without seeing it in person, its kind of hard to tell what is what with the limb overlap.

The green is the trunk and main 4 branches. Your going to want to keep the main part in a wine glass shape. The smallest horizontal shoots at the bottom can come off. Them prune the entire canopy back to a lateral some where around the halfway Point length wise (blue lines) also, clean up any branches that rub, have cracks or die back. A slow release fertilizer would be a good idea if it hasn't had anything applied. Without a soil sample or knowing what local soil conditions are like, I couldn't recommend anything.

If you cut all that off at once, it may die, or not produce fruit. But if the branch that broke doesn't compartmentalize , it could die from that too. They are typically pruned yearly, so results are a gamble. However, if it doesn't produce its worth a try or a replacement View attachment 396576

Thanks. The drawing you did is VERY helpful.

The thing is that the pruning guides I've been given all show -properly- pruned production fruit trees. And they all look very simple and bare. They are so bare that it's hard to know how to get -my- tree to -there-. They just look too different. So again, that drawing helps a -lot-.

Now... I do worry that all the pruning it needs might kill it, but without fruit it's just stupid looking.

My next question would be, if I -do- prune it hard, should it respond immediately? IOW: if I prune it this winter, will it fruit in the same year (summer)? Or does it take a year or more to recover?

And -then- my next question would be -when-. I've been told that if you prune in the winter, it should be done at the absolute end of winter, since the plums fruit early. So... I was going to wait until end of February (which is the last time we'll usually get a hard freeze here.) Does that sound reasonable?

Big Cheers!

 

[I'llbearealclimberoneday]

Its going to be an on going process to get it to look like a "production" tree and take multiple pruning over a few seasons. Some fruit trees spend the first few years getting heavily trained via pruning, so how close you can get it is hard to say.

End of Feb should be a good time if there won't be another freeze after. As far as when it will bear fruit again? I'd say that it should produce some very small fruit this year and the size and amount will give you a good idea of what it should do the following season. If it doesn't produce at all this year, id pull it out.

You can work some fertilizer into the soil anytime. The tree won't take it up right away, but it gives it a head start to break down.

Considering it takes 3-5 years for plums to start to produce fruit, id try to save the one you have, and possibly plant another one that gets proper care from the beginning if there is enough room.

 

[suntower]

OK, not to beat a dead horse, but here are a couple more piccies. One is my fabulous drawing skills to indicate where I -think- I should prune.

The other is a detail of one of the main 'arms'. Can you do your drawing magic and indicate (as specifically as possible) what I'm supposed to remove? By that I mean is there a difference in any of these shoots that I can clearly see which will generate a fruit and which will generate just another branch? Or do I remove them -all- and let the plant figure it out?

Thanks again!

 

[old_soul]

the main top branch that was removed would be my concern. That was way too big of a cut and may never heal over. which will rot down the center of the trunk

Now with all the sunlight towards the center, you get a massive amount of sprouting. Which is normal for production fruit trees. As they get pruned and removed every winter.

However to control the sprouting you need to keep your cuts in the shade.

Takes ALOT of time, and practice. Good luck

 

[suntower]

Yeah, there's nothing I could do about that top branch... it literally cracked under the weight of too much fruit. (We used to joke that this thing was like a factory farm chicken... it was designed to have more fruit than it's little body could carry.) Anyhoo, it -did- produce like crazy.

Where you wrote:

However to control the sprouting you need to keep your cuts in the shade.

I don't understand what that means. Are you saying do all the pruning in the -center- of the tree? Or on the bottom where it gets less light? Sorry if that's such a noob question.

TIA

 

[I'llbearealclimberoneday]

He's basically saying that the cuts that get shaded by the plant will compartmentalize and the cuts that are exposed to light will become epicormic and resprout

 

[suntower]

He's basically saying that the cuts that get shaded by the plant will compartmentalize and the cuts that are exposed to light will become epicormic and resprout

1. So I do NOT want 'epicormic' and I DO want 'cuts that get shaded by the plant'?

2. So does that mean that I prune all the stuff that is facing the sunlight, but buds on the =underside= or which are otherwise blocked from light by other branches I should leave to grow?

TIA!

 

[suntower]

A bit of a follow-up 9 months later. I followed the advice of Illbearealclimberoneday (along with a brochure I got online from the University of North Carolina) and the results:

I had a bumper crop of plums this year. More than I can ever recall, in fact.

Thanks.

 

[I'llbearealclimberoneday]

Glad that worked out for you. Once you get it in good shape, its so much easier to prune and take care of. no more fighting the tangled mess