Stanley Plum Pruning Guidance

5 years ago

I have completed the pruning for all of my other trees and I'm trying to decide what to do with my Stanley Plum tree. To me it looks like it's naturally trying to grow into an open center form. My understanding is that a European plum should usually be pruned to a central leader form. As you can see in the pictures below this tree doesn't have a central leader.

Any thoughts on what I should do here, should I just go ahead and follow the open center form that it seems to be developing?

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Comments (3)

Embothrium
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
If it's supposed to have a dominant leader then choose a candidate and tie it closely to a secure stake.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
boy its nice to see a guy who wants to grow trees with enough property to grow what he wants ....

isnt this the same issue as the persimmon post??? ... why are you fixated on a single straight leader ... let the tree do its own thing.. and get back in the house.. to order some more trees for spring planting.. lol....

in my MI ... ive had about 4 of these.. and they all died young due to black know issues ... mostly being.. that they get so ugly... i put them out of my misery ... imo.. you ought to be more concerned about that.. than the leader ...

again... drive around and look at the dormant trees in the area.. and note how many of all types.. simply dont have a single straight leader ...even better if there is a local orchard.. just go ask permission to walk around such.. and look at what they do .... you might be horrified... lol ..

ken
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Daniel Central IN, Zone 6a
Original Author
5 years ago
thanks I did some more reading on fruit tree pruning today. European plum was listed as central leader form but at least on nursery noted that preference of the gardener and the tree should be considered. in this case the tree seems to prefer the open Center so I guess I should just follow its lead on this.