The Best Plum Tree Pruning Videos

Plums are vigorous trees and respond well to pruning.
If they are not pruned, they quickly get tangled and less productive, often with branches breaking under heavy crops.

By watching several big plum growers expertly handle their wood, you can improve your plum wood handling at home.

Pruning a Young plum tree

Pruning a Mature Plum Tree

Cutting Back Overgrown, Neglected Plums

Essential Plum Tree Pruning Info

The Plum tree family includes damsons, gages, mirabelles, and all sorts of hybrids. They are vigorous plants that become a tangled mess without pruning.

• The fruit itself needs sun to ripen, so you don’t want branches growing on top of each other.
• Most varieties make more fruit than their branches can bear, especially when the tree is young, so pruning helps to prevent them from snapping.
• Pruning renews the tree’s fruitful wood while removing unproductive wood.
• Pruning in Summer also helps to control the tree’s vigour.

When do I prune my plum trees?

Spring is the ideal time to prune all stone fruit: plums, cherries, peaches etc, and you can safely prune from bud break in Spring to mid-Summer.

Pruning your plums in Spring cuts off excess fruit buds while they’re small

• This gives the rest of the buds more nutrients for making excellent fruit.
• If you tried to keep all the fruit, you would be disappointed with the quality, and probably have branches snapping under the weight.

In the growing season, rising sap prevents fungal spores entering the healing wound

If you prune plums in Winter, there is a small risk of the silver leaf fungus entering the cut.

• Silver leaf disease should only be a concern for large scale commercial growers
• In the home garden, especially in urban areas, this disease is not common
• If you have to make large pruning cuts on precious stone fruit in Winter, play it safe by washing the bark with alcohol first, then immediately painting the cut with Medo Pruning Seal

As always, remove DDD at any time: dead, damaged, or diseased wood.

What tools do I need to prune plum trees?

Pruning a plum tree require the same basic tools as any other tree:

• Secateurs and a wicked sharp pruning saw are your main tools
• Perhaps long-handled bypass loppers

How to Prune Plum Trees

Familiarise yourself with the options with this RHS Plum pruning guide.

Formative Pruning of a New Plum Tree

A Plum can be pruned into a classic Open Centre tree, either as a Bush with a short trunk, or a Half-Standard with a trunk about 1.5m tall, and usually three to five main branches coming off the trunk.

• Pruning a new tree after planting into a Bush (i.e. short trunk) or Half-Standard (i.e. ‘normal’ trunk)
• Pruning a fruit tree as an Open Centre in year two
• Pruning a fruit tree as an Open Centre in year three