How to Cut a Plum Tree

Annual pruning leaves your plum tree healthy and able to produce more fruit.

Plum trees are fairly hearty and produce fruit from late spring through the end of summer, but overgrown trees produce little, if any, fruit. Cutting back plum trees, commonly referred to as pruning, removes long branches and excess leaves, causing the tree to focus on producing more fruit. Cutting plum trees is essential to a bountiful harvest.

Things You'll Need

• Pruning shears
• Protective sealer

Instructions

1. Prune your plum tree in June. This is the height of the growing season, and minimizes the chance that the tree will contract fungi such as silver leaf disease.

2. Trim away any dead or infected branches. Hold the shears as close to the main trunk as possible, snipping the branches off at a downward angle. Coat the cut end with a protective sealer to prevent water from seeping into the trunk.

3. Cut the tree down to a height of 24 inches during its first growing cycle. Cut just above the first bud, trimming away the next bud immediately below the cut. This encourages the tree to direct nutrients to the remaining buds and produce rich, healthy blossoms next season.

4. Prune all branches on the plum tree during its second year. Trim approximately 18 inches the main stem, stopping above a bud. Cut back the other branches to a length 10 inches, leaving a healthy bud just below the cuts.

5. Snip the center stem back another 18 inches in the tree's third year, and cut all new growth back by 10 inches. New branches are the ones that have sprouted since the last growing season, and have not yet produced fruit.

6. Repeat step 5 each June to encourage more plum production, and larger fruit. Inspect trees often for signs of parasites or disease, removing affected limbs before they spread to the body of the tree.

Tips & Warnings

• Dead branches sound hollow when tapped with your fingers, and the bark flakes and peels away easily. Trees infected with silver leaf disease have a whitish coating on leaves, and white fungus on affected branches.

References

• Garden Action: Pruning Plum Trees
• North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service: Training and Pruning Fruit Trees