When to Prune an Italian Plum Tree

Pruning fruit trees is vital to healthy, quality fruit production. Cutting back the branches of your Italian plum tree, also called a prune tree, means enabling your tree to produce a harvest of sweet and juicy plums. The fruit is good canned, dried or eaten right off the tree, so why not learn how to take good care of your Italian plum. If you need a set of instructions for proper pruning, read through the following steps. In the future, if you are planning on planting your own Italian plum, you'll have no problem knowing exactly what to do.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pruning Shears
• Electric Shears
• Sealer

1. Remove the tips of the tree's stems by pinching them off with your fingers. Do this while the tree is young to prevent a future need for a more severe pruning.

2. Thin your Italian plum tree by removing all the dead and dying branches. Take the branches off at the trunk to allow more light into the inner parts of the tree.

3. Maintain the desired shape of your Italian plum tree by cutting the branches off at the top, and around the tree, using electric shears.

4. Reduce the size of your tree to prevent overgrowth. If you can't reach the fruit without a ladder, the tree is too tall. Cut back a third of the tree at each pruning. Pruning back the branches also promotes new plant growth.

5. Make cuts clean just above a bud, and seal all cuts with a sealer to prevent infection.

6. Avoid silver leaf disease by pruning your Italian plum in June while the tree is rapidly growing.

Tips & Warnings

• Pruning Italian plum trees increases air flow which cuts down on insect infestation.
• When pruning your trees remember to take branches off the inside as well as the outside.
• Never prune your Italian plum tree in winter as the cold can increase the chances of disease.