Great video. I'm a hobbyist with a home plum orchard in SE Georgia (USA). I sell plums as a side gig. Anyway, I have a long, hot and humid growing season with lots of disease pressure. In fact, I can only grow plums with a lot of genes from North American species in them for disease resistance. Anyway, I prune three times a year. Spring pruning happens right after bud break (late February) mostly to remove dead, diseased and damaged limbs and to clean out the center of the canopy as part of my disease control efforts. Given our stem canker pressure its super important that sun and wind can get inside the canopy. I also do a training prune for young trees this time of year. I do my heaviest pruning for maintaining size in summer right after ripening which is mid to late June depending on the variety. My plums ripen in late May and June which should give you a sense for how long my growing season is. I do a tiny bit of pruning in January just to collect scion-wood to sell and for grafting young trees which I also sell. The last couple weeks of December through January is the only time when all my plum trees are really and truly dormant. Thanks.

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

6 ай бұрын

Hello @coolmantoole - thank you for watching and for your most interesting comment which we both really enjoyed reading Have a great rest of the week All the best Melanie and John 🌸

@coolmantoole

6 ай бұрын

Here is a plum pollination tip for your North American viewers. Many cultivars of native species and their hybrids bred for an extreme low chilling requirement and disease resistance for the Deep South or for extreme cold tolerance for the Northern US and Canada have very weak pollen. If you have trouble with fruit set, a solution is to bring the wild type of the North American parent species into the yard. Really, all you have to do in many rural areas is drive around country roads at bloom time and cut a few branches from a blooming wild plum tree and sit them in a bucket of water under the cultivars and let the bees do the rest. Here I use P. angustifolia to pollinize my early blooming cultivars and P. umbelatta for my late blooming cultivars. @@JohnHorseyHorticulture

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

6 ай бұрын

@@coolmantoole Thank you very much again, very very interesting and I shall properly pin both your comments when we arrive home tomorrow as we are away Have a great weekend All the best Melanie 🌸

My children and I are planting a plum, pear and cherry orchard tomorrow :-) This video was very helpful, thank you. Im glad I decided on the dwarf trees now. We are in Bradford on Avon, not too far from you. Look forward to you future videos.

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Ricardo - thank you for watching our video and what a lovely thing to be doing with your children tomorrow- we certainly all need some cheer at the moment! Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas 🎄

Excellent video, thank you.

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

Жыл бұрын

Hello John - thank you for watching and for your lovely comment 💚 Have a great week All the best Melanie and John 🌸

Thanks, very helpful.

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching our video and we are very glad we could help All the best

Great video. 😀. I just pruned back my 2 plum trees today 03/08/2022. Having watched your video I am going to prune some new growth back a bit more to 2 buds. 🙂.

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

Жыл бұрын

Hello myview1875 - thank you for watching our video and for your comment 😊 That’s great and indeed we pruned our plum again yesterday the 2nd - Have a good rest of the week All the best Melanie and John 🌸

Thank you very much for your information

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

Жыл бұрын

Hello Maria - thank you for watching and we hope to have been of help Have a great week All the best Melanie 🌸

Thanks ....... great information

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Sonaa - thank you for watching our video and for your kind comment 💚 We are very glad to have been of help to you Have a great week All the best Melanie 🌸

Very helpful thanks

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

11 ай бұрын

Hello Daniel - thank you for watching and for your comment and we are very glad to have been of help Have a great rest of the week All the best Melanie and John 🌸

Thanks for the pruning tip

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

3 жыл бұрын

New Jersey Indoor Gardener - Thank you for watching our video and you are welcome All the best 🌸

@SeededandRooted

3 жыл бұрын

John Horsey Horticulture Thank you and your welcome stay safe

Great advice I shall prune my 🍎 and 🍐 in summer to stop growth after june drop 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Graham - thank you for watching - we like to keep our plum to a controllable size too! all the best 🌸

Very useful

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

3 жыл бұрын

Anna Shiegl Thank you for watching our video and your kind words All the best 🌸

Today we are sharing how to prune our Victoria plum tree - it's summer time & we don't want it to get too big & out of control!

Thank you. 🙏

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

Жыл бұрын

Hello OpheliaM - thank you for watching our video and we hope to have been of help 💚Have a great weekend All the best Melanie 🌸

Thanks very much for this video. Perhaps you can help me with a question that I can't seem to find an answer to anywhere. With plums, do you cut back new growth to a certain number of buds to encourage fruiting buds and spurs as you do when summer pruning apples? Many thanks.

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Nick - thank you for watching our video and for your question: the answer is yes and you will also find with plums that you will get fruiting spurs from further down the tree as well Have a great rest of the week All the best Melanie 🌸

@nickmclaren3898

2 жыл бұрын

@@JohnHorseyHorticulture Thanks so much for the reply, Melanie. I hope you enjoy the rest of the week too! Very best wishes.

Hi John, brilliantly informative video thank you. I have a Victoria plum that is around 10ft tall. The lower 7ft was covered with bush which has since been removed. The tree has no branches below that 7ft line but above has fruited this year for the first time. I'd like to lower the plum tree and encourage branches/fruit below that line, is that possible? Thanks

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

10 ай бұрын

Hello Meatalecider8597 - thank you for watching our video and for your question 💚 John suggests before it gets cold cut 1ft off from the top of the tree which may encourage it to shoot out from the bottom and keep the bottom nice and clear to allow lots of light and see how you go Have a great weekend All the best Melanie and John 🌸

@meatalecider8597

10 ай бұрын

@@JohnHorseyHorticulture Brilliant. Thank you both for the advice, I'll certainly try that.

This year I missed pruning in July.Can I prune just a bit now around 24th September?

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

3 жыл бұрын

Ibrahim Juma Hello - yes you can as long as the weather isn’t too cold i.e. no frost but don’t wait too long as we are going into Autumn All the best and thank you for watching our video 🌸

Thanks for the very useful and informative video. Now I know how to prune my plum tree. But I have a question - this year my Victoria plum didn't blossom at all, not a single blossom appeared, so no plums. Do you know why this happened and how I can help the tree to blossom in future? Thanks for a great channel.

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

Жыл бұрын

Hello toomuchrose - thank you for watching our video and for your very encouraging comment for us 💚 regarding your tree it could have been the weather especially the very dry summer we had last year which may have stopped the initiation of buds but it could also have been the weather this spring in that frost destroyed the flower buds before they opened Biennial fruiting is sometimes a problem too but your best bet is to keep your tree well mulched with compost to feed it and ensure it has plenty of water for this season We hope this helps Have a great weekend All the best Melanie and John 🌸

@toomuchrose

Жыл бұрын

@@JohnHorseyHorticulture Thanks for that, I think you're right about the weather! Hopefully the tree will recover it's mojo next year.

I have moved into a house which had a fairly new planted plum tree.. maybe a couple if years old. It's thin and about 9ft. Last year I noticed a couple of plums on it. This year it blossomed lovely and started noticing little plums coming through... but then within 10 day it's completely changed. Most of the plums have not grown any further and the leaves have holes in some of them and are curling up and drying out. I'm gutted! Do you know what could be the problem?

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

2 жыл бұрын

Hello Farah - thank you for watching and for your comment 😊 John is teaching today and tomorrow but he wants to have a think about what could be the problem as it could be disease We will get back to you very soon All the best Melanie 🌸

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

2 жыл бұрын

Hello Farah - it sounds as though the tree has been neglected and John says the best thing to do against diseases is to strengthen the tree by giving it a very good mulch - not touching the bark - a good dose of general plant food and keep it well watered so it can recover 😊 We do hope this has helped Enjoy the rest of your week Melanie 🌸

My plum tree is not holding the fruits , it is usually loaded with flowers on the spring ,then they all fall off, can someone give some advice. Thanks.

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

11 ай бұрын

Hello @leetabaychu3905 Thank you for watching our video and for your question 💚 The fruit falling off is a natural shedding by the tree but if you think there is too much fruit falling off it could be that the tree is a little dry so keep it well watered and you could give it a feed as well Have a great rest of the week All the best Melanie and John 🌸

How can I get advantage from your experience

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

6 ай бұрын

Hello @alamgirkhan2719 thank you for watching 💚 We are currently developing online gardening courses which will be launching soon with the main diploma including twice monthly Q&A live online sessions with John Please keep an eye on our website www.johnhorseyhorticulture.co.uk and the Community tab on our channel for announcements Have a great rest of the week All the best Melanie and John 🌸

I have a plum tree but the plums have maggots in them what should i do

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

10 ай бұрын

Hello AbdulRauf - thank you for watching our video and for your question 💚 Our apologies for the delay in replying to you but John has broken his leg and we are bit behind with things - it sounds like you have a plum moth, the caterpillars eat around the plum stone and leave excretions and it is difficult to control. A pheromone trap (available from garden centres) will attract and kill the males which might be enough to reduce numbers or you can spray in early summer and again 3 weeks later We hope your infestation is not too bad but the plum moth is rarely a regular pest. We do hope this helps you and gives you some ideas. Have a great rest of the weekend All the best Melanie and John 🌸

Camera needs to be closer, cannot really see enough of what you are cutting to learn. Too fast

@JohnHorseyHorticulture

2 жыл бұрын

Hello Kathy - thank you for your comment: I have put timestamps in the description which may help with the close-ups in the video. All the best 🌸