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[Guest]

HI

 

I dont think you are supposed to prune plum trees? but my victoria plum tree has some big splits in the main trunk and other areas. Shall I prune it back as I fear it may go and split completely..not sure what to do(I dont mind giving it a good trim up and take a chance)

 

Any advice please thanks indie

[sjp]

you can prune plums but they should be done in the in the summer.

this late in the year they are at risk of something called silver disease which I think is a fongal disease thats untreatable but I have had to prune a Victoria for the same reason aa you I had a 2 1/2 inch branch brake on one a few years back.

there is or was a compound that you paint on to a freash cut to seal it but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. It's a must for pruning cuts on the 'Prunus' family this time of year

[Guest]

Thanks I think if I dont chop the tree it risks splitting down quite a large limb.

 

I do remember as a child my father every year use to prune an old plum tree and it had tons of plums, but the tree I have is only about 5 years old. it does have a lot of fruit on it.

 

I just didnt want to kill it off completely as I do use the fruit in chutneys

 

Thank you indie

[sjp]

its silver leaf disease that plums get if you prune in the winter but if the branch is badly damaged it's probably better to remove it the treat the cut with a liquid pruning compond

 

the trouble with Victoria it crops to heavy for the strength of the wood to bear I tried fruit thining one year after I'd had the branch snap went from overloaded to reasonable crop to no crop ended up with brown rot

[Daphne]

I had the same problem as SJP when I had a dwarfing rootstock Victoria in terms of the the tree not being able to support the heavy crop, limbs splitting, cut them off, tree cropped worse and worse each year afterwards (but I didn't treat it with anything so I'm sure that didn't help). But now I've got a larger tree it can bear the fruit much better....although I can't always reach it

[Guest]

Thank you for all the replies it sounds just like you all say and it does fruit really heavily.

 

And yes the fruit is always at the top of the tree(for the wasps)

 

I will take a bit more of it off in the spring if I can leave it that long, hopefully it wont split and last until then cheers

 

indie