Grow Your Own Magazine

We inherited a plum tree when we moved into our new house. Apparently it hadn't fruited for years and was about to be removed. I fed the tree and gave it a good prune and have been really excited that it is full of plums!
Last night when I went to check on the veggies I see that one of the large lower branches has broken from the trunk leaving quite a large splinter. Do I need to treat the wound? I'm sure it broke from weight of fruit as we haven't had any bad weather for ages.
Thanks
Mel

Hi cotton, noticed no-one had replied to you so I will offer my advice, although I'm no expert on trees! I would just try & tidy up the splinter so that there are no jagged edges sticking out from the trunk. There are wound paints which you can buy & apply but some people say not to bother with this. Hope it recovers & all your plums survive, perhaps you should thin out the fruits on the other branches to stop it happening again.

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

I have the same thing on mine. Just trim up the damage and leave it to nature. Summer is the time to prune plums so just consider it as one less branch to trim. If the tree is heavily loaded you could prop the branches to give support.

Hello Cotton, I'm no expert on plum trees. I had one which only ever made 1 plum which blew away in a storm ! My father in law had plum trees which fruited very heavily and he put props under the branches to support their weight and stop them snapping with the weight of the fruit. Maybe you could do something like that.

Hi Cotton, I've just read an item in Garden News that says it looks like a bumper year for plums as there were not many late frosts. It also says you should thin out the fruit to spacing of about 2 or 3 ins. between each or the weight of the fruit could snap the branches like yours. Also if you leave all the fruit on this year it takes it out of the tree & you will not get many fruits next year & it will start a 'biennial' fruiting pattern (one on, one off).

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

thanks for all the advice - I will be out in the garden this afternoon!

Mel