Pruning a Plum Tree for Better Shape and Production

Тәжірибелік нұсқаулар және стиль

A friend's father-in-law needed some work done in his orchard so I volunteered. This plum tree should do quite well after this winter pruning.
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Пікірлер: 47

  • @baddriversofcolga
    @baddriversofcolga3 жыл бұрын

    I love using loppers, and it's fun cutting branches. The hard part is deciding on what to prune, but even that's not that bad. Also, in other news one of my 6 peach trees from pits is putting on flower buds for the first time! Very exciting.

  • @shanemillard608
    @shanemillard6083 жыл бұрын

    Haha. You're doing what I have been doing - going to other peoples trees and pruning their trees to help them bear fruit. And like you said "I'm not doing anymore" are famous misstatements to anyone that has a saw or loppers and is working on pruning trees

  • @johnnyroadcrew3841
    @johnnyroadcrew38413 жыл бұрын

    I laughed out loud when you said "when youve got loppers everything looks like a branch" good job.

  • @IsaacNewton1966

    @IsaacNewton1966

    3 жыл бұрын

    So true.

  • @tommymckiddy7872
    @tommymckiddy78723 жыл бұрын

    I got my hands dirty in the garden today. It felt awesome. I also got 3 of your books from Amazon delivered. Awesome day. I can't wait to read them.

  • @jameswardlaw-bailey9169
    @jameswardlaw-bailey91693 жыл бұрын

    The moose helped prune my plum trees last week (and apple tree and current bushes...)

  • @pamelabratton2501

    @pamelabratton2501

    3 жыл бұрын

    Cows keep my Mom's pecans trimmed nice and flat at the bottom! Very even cutting...

  • @coolmantoole
    @coolmantoole5 ай бұрын

    I have a home plum orchard in SE Georgia as a side gig. (It's by far the easiest fruit to sell in my area!) I totally agree that the tree needed pruning, and it looks like you did a good job with it. However, if a plum tree that size and healthy looking isn't producing any fruit, my first thought would be to consider a pollination issue. From the looks of that tree's growth habit and branches it could well either be a Chickasaw cultivar or a hybrid with a lot of Chickasaw plum in its genetic makeup. None of them that I'm aware of are self-fertile, and many of them have either very little or very weak pollen. Furthermore, I don't see another plum tree in the camera's field of vision, but there could well be one behind it. If there is no other plum tree within easy flying distance of a bee, that's a fundamental cause of the lack of productivity that pruning will never overcome. However, if there is another plum tree in the yard, and it's also either a Chickasaw cultivar or a hybrid with lots of chickasaw in it, it may not be producing enough viable pollen to make the tree you are working on fruitful. The pollenizers of Chickasaw cultivars and hybrids are wild-type Chickasaw plum trees. If you want to test this, the next time your plum trees bloom, go find a thicket of blooming wild plums. Put a bunch of blooming branches in a five-gallon bucket of water under the tree. If you have bees and the flowers don't get yacked by a late frost, the tree will set fruit, assuming pollination was the issue.

  • @matthewkizziahcuzia...gott9632
    @matthewkizziahcuzia...gott96323 жыл бұрын

    I find myself at work explaining plant stuff to customers and more often now I catch myself sounding like you. Not a bad thing.

  • @matthewfarrell317
    @matthewfarrell3173 жыл бұрын

    I do love that your fruit trees are waking up, and mine are preparing to go to sleep.

  • @garden_geek
    @garden_geek3 жыл бұрын

    Yikes, I've been lopping branches off too close to the parent branch. Won't make that mistake anymore, thank you for the tip!

  • @hughbrackett343
    @hughbrackett3433 жыл бұрын

    🎼🎶Wake up 'lil plumb tree Wake up!🎶

  • @dorie991
    @dorie9913 жыл бұрын

    Thank you !

  • @GypsyBrokenwings
    @GypsyBrokenwings3 жыл бұрын

    David, I had 2 plum trees that size that didn't give fruit. One day I was watching gardening with Cisco and he said take a baseball bat to your fruit tree and give it a couple good wacks. It makes the tree think you're going to cut it down. What did I have to loose? So I went out and smacked both of them really good. That year I had plums like crazy on BOTH trees.

  • @coolmantoole

    @coolmantoole

    5 ай бұрын

    Pruning has exactly that effect on lots of fruit species. Pruning roots even more so. However, with plum trees the problem is lack of a compatible pollinizer a huge percentage of the time. Plum flowers are receptive to pollen for a super short period of time, so two trees often miss each other by a day at bloom time. Or they just aren't compatible. The tree this guy was cutting on looks like a Chickasaw cultivar, and they are notorious as a group for having bad pollen. You really need flowers of a wild-type tree present to get a good crop of plums from a Chickasaw plum cultivar.

  • @PaleGhost69
    @PaleGhost693 жыл бұрын

    Instructions unclear, ended up with a prune tree

  • @janpenland3686

    @janpenland3686

    3 жыл бұрын

    😆😂😂😂😝❤️

  • @garyjohnson801
    @garyjohnson801 Жыл бұрын

    I had a plum tree and it was a low chill plum for 7 years and it was open center had plenty of blooms but never produced any plums with full sun. Now my Daughter has it and it's 8 years old and still no plums

  • @dougatfuto5
    @dougatfuto53 жыл бұрын

    looked like a big tree, are there any fruiting spurs? maybe some heading cuts?

  • @Big88Country
    @Big88Country2 жыл бұрын

    This is the perfect time of year to also cut back a lot of the red colored shoots, that is the new growth. Plums will not produce on those red shoots, only leaves. Plums only set fruit on 2 year or older growth. So basically, it's cutting back on the suckers. Only leave the ones where you want to promote growth to shape your tree. Yesterday I had to prune a plum WAY back because it was the first time the 5 or 6 year old tree had been pruned. Thanks for sharing!

  • @davidthegood

    @davidthegood

    2 жыл бұрын

    Thank you - good work.

  • @Big88Country

    @Big88Country

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@davidthegood Also, the plum limbs are great to use with a smoker, produces a great flavor on pork or beef. Enjoy the weekend!

  • @benjaminbroudy2982
    @benjaminbroudy29823 жыл бұрын

    Could you do "The Great Rooting Experiment" where you take cuttings from tons of different species (plums, apples, pears, anything else you can find) and then try to root them with different methods? Thank you! (And please Lord forgive me for my sins. I shall attempt not to steal cuttings again from my school's tree)

  • @oldrooster7084
    @oldrooster70843 жыл бұрын

    You have done very good job, thank you!! Very nice video! I'm from Croatia and i am wondering what kind of plum varietyes do you have? From all videos i have found i can see that in Europe we don't have the same varietyes like you in the US... Maybe you could make video about your plums when they have fruit on them and show us how they look and taste like... Just an idea... But thanks again, this is awsome video!

  • @Homegardener55
    @Homegardener552 жыл бұрын

    Depending on what variety that is you may never get fruit with just one tree, most plum varieties need a second tree of a different variety for cross pollination, when you did the close up of the branch to show a proper cut it appears that you have fruiting spurs, which is how plums fruit so I think adding another tree of a different variety would make it fruit.

  • @davidthegood

    @davidthegood

    2 жыл бұрын

    You are right, but there are multiple trees on this property.

  • @SweetLoveTarot
    @SweetLoveTarot3 жыл бұрын

    Hello David, I am not faint of heart when it comes to pruning but I am faced with a very sad little apple tree. It has had all of the bark eaten off of one side of the tree. However hope springs eternal. There are a couple of branches clinging to life and one more that had been cut in half that has several new sprouts near the ground. it doesn't appear to be below a graft either! I feel sure I can revive this little tree if I provide some protection from browsing deer. My question is, do I clean up the new sprouts opting for a strong new start and leave the other two branches (with a little judicious pruning) to limp along till I get something more established or do I show no mercy and chop it down to the new start? Note this little tree is 27 years old and I worry that if I am too drastic it will shock it into giving up for good. I welcome your advice.

  • @korodski

    @korodski

    2 жыл бұрын

    make a video

  • @Bigdogbarkinq87
    @Bigdogbarkinq87 Жыл бұрын

    He's gotta be in Mississippi

  • @davidthegood

    @davidthegood

    Жыл бұрын

    Next door in 'bama. Good eye.

  • @zaneymay
    @zaneymay3 жыл бұрын

    Anytime you want, come over and help by food forest. 😁

  • @davidthegood

    @davidthegood

    3 жыл бұрын

    Are you nearby?

  • @lynettetucker5236
    @lynettetucker52363 жыл бұрын

    Maybe that's what is wrong with the mulberry tree in my backyard it never has fruit on it only fruited one time and that was 10 years ago

  • @junitpeace68
    @junitpeace683 жыл бұрын

    I’m worried about my soursop I just planted. It’s suddenly loosing its leaves. I heard it could be a problem with over or underwater. How often should I water. I know this tree is sensitive and I’m in Florida

  • @janpenland3686

    @janpenland3686

    3 жыл бұрын

    Maybe Transplant Shock.

  • @nickm7019

    @nickm7019

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@janpenland3686 yeah I think so too. I’ll give it a while to see what’s gonna happen. Thanks

  • @stevebetker829
    @stevebetker8293 жыл бұрын

    Might be a ornamental plum tree.

  • @pamelabratton2501
    @pamelabratton25013 жыл бұрын

    I have been taught that you prune your fruit trees so you can throw a cat through it! Hard to do, I have done about 1/4 of my orchard. It is very Hard to cut limbs off this tiny tree you are trying to get to GROW! 'The first cut is the deepest!'

  • @angelbear_og

    @angelbear_og

    3 жыл бұрын

    When you said "hard to do" I thought you were referring to throwing the cat through it.

  • @pamelabratton2501

    @pamelabratton2501

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@angelbear_og Hahaa! Yes! Now my cat HATES when I prune! *giggle*

  • @angelbear_og

    @angelbear_og

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@pamelabratton2501 🤣

  • @portaadonai
    @portaadonai3 жыл бұрын

    To be clear... you mean that improper pruning would make the fruit harder to ripen. The fact there is no fruit is pollination issues not sunlight issues.. right?

  • @fatman7817
    @fatman7817 Жыл бұрын

    You seem like a really nice fruitcake to hang out with, smoke some salmon, jam, and play in some dirt. Have a great day.

  • @MalkiZee
    @MalkiZee3 жыл бұрын

    Don't eat green plums eeww.

  • @michaelellis7326
    @michaelellis73264 ай бұрын

    Disregard all this if you live in England ! Our climate is entirely different.

  • @davidthegood

    @davidthegood

    4 ай бұрын

    You don’t prune there?

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