The size of fruit trees isn’t truly optional—especially if you plan to harvest fruit or have a tree with a long, thriving life. Each fruit tree has its own small needs, just like the plum tree we’re going to help you with here.
Pruning a Plum Tree: Get to Know This Tree Better
When it comes to fruit tree pruning, the plum tree is fairly fragile. This tree can grow from about 13 to 33 feet tall depending on the variety, but it always has a slightly rounded habit.
Its flowering is quite impressive and occurs very early in the year, from March to April. This early flowering strategy isn’t without risk for the plum tree, which fears frost and can thus lose all its blossoms in a single cold snap…
Capable of adapting to all soil types, the plum tree will rather fear soils that are too dry and droughts that are too long.
The harvest of its fruit happens from mid-June to the end of September if late frosts and water shortages do not interfere.
Why prune your plum tree?
Plum trees aren’t big fans of pruning, as are all stone fruit trees, which are susceptible to pest attacks on pruning wounds.
That said, if you don’t prune your plum tree from time to time, it will significantly weaken over time. It will direct its energy toward leaf growth rather than fruit, and will slowly but surely weaken until it can no longer produce and declines completely.
When to prune the plum tree
As noted above, the plum tree is sensitive to pests on pruning wounds. To minimize infection risks, you should absolutely prune at the very end of autumn and the start of winter when the sap is descending into the roots.
This helps limit the formation of “gum” on the wound, which tends to favor pests when spring returns.
If you ever couldn’t prune during that period for one reason or another, better to prune anyway rather than do nothing. You can prune up to February inclusive.
How to prune a plum tree
The plum tree is pruned at planting, like all fruit trees, to give it shape and vigor. Typically nursery stock has already had its first years of pruning done, which mainly consists of setting the tree’s final height (standard, semi-dwarf, dwarf).
You can, however, prune the tips of all the roots just before planting to give them vigor.
Afterward, it will be unnecessary to intervene every year, but rather every four years, unless damage is caused for some reason. It will then mainly involve trimming the outer canopy by 25 to 30 cm.
Internal pruning of the plum tree
Once this is done, you will tackle the inside of your plum tree to give it space and to encourage fruiting outdoors. Cut all dead branches, those that have dried, those that grow inward, but also the very vigorous young shoots that bear no fruit and simply produce leaves and wood.
And that’s it, you can look forward to your plum tree in four years!
Accessible to everyone thanks to its plain language and alphabetical organization, The ABC of Pruning guides you, step by step, to pruning the trees and shrubs in your garden: your daily companion in the garden
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