Start with identifying and eliminating the 3D’s. Is it touching anything that it shouldn’t (a building, another tree, wires, etc.)?Īre there overlapping (crossing) branches? Branches that rub on one another may be the future sites of diseased wounds.ĭo the branches tend to lean too heavy on one side?ĭoes the location of the tree call for it to be limbed up? Step 2 – Develop a pruning plan Take a step back and look at the shape and structure of the tree. Step 1 – Examine the tree with a critical eye It is only logical that you wouldn’t want to work out in the rain, the tree doesn’t like it either. One simple step that often goes missing is this: prune your fruit trees on a dry, sunny day. Learn how to trim one and the rest will be easy, as the base principles of pruning are the same.
While winter pruning is recommended for many fruit trees, you will find that plum trees are best pruned in late summer/early fall.Īpple trees are among the easiest, and most forgiving, trees to prune, but plums are just as easy. Give yourself quite a few seasons of close observation and jot down your findings in a notebook, so that you too, can follow the rhythms of nature. Apples and pears often stick to this routine too. This is called alternate or biennial bearing, and there is nothing unnatural about it. Plums are known to produce a generous crop one year, then they take a year off of fruiting – or sometimes 2! So, when a bountiful plum harvest is yours for the picking, take advantage of it and preserve as much plum jam as you have jars and pantry space for. If you stop to think about it, many crops act this way, especially in the realm of perennial fruit trees.
Just in case you are thinking of planting an orchard… That is life in the world of fruit production. One summer you will harvest buckets and bowlfuls of the sweetest purple gems, the next year just a few sad, bitter, wrinkly little things. You will never harvest the same amount from year to year.
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