Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["elderberryjam" <elderberryjam@zippytech.com>]

Two autumns ago we pruned some very old plum trees, figuring we'd end up 
killing some of them. They were covered with black knot, and had been for 
over 25 years. They were still producing, very small, wormy plums that are 
deep purple with a greenish flesh. They were grown tall and thin like 
lombardi poplars in shape. We cut them off the top and pruned off any branch 
with a knot on it, and burned it all. We figured there were some new shoots 
we could save into trees if these died.

Two springs later, they are at a pick-able height, and have put out so many 
new branches that the thought that we killed them seems a joke. They either 
did not bloom this year or didn't bloom much and the frost got what did 
bloom. In the past, they've been covered with blooms in the spring. My 
husband has kept pruning any branch showing signs of the black knot. The 
shape is now a little more ball-like on top.

My long gone great uncles once had an orchard and fruit farm here. Some of 
the apple trees still survive, and we don't know the varieties. I'd love to 
salvage them. Some are rather tall though, and I wouldn't know where to 
start. But we may prune them some this coming autumn.

Gwen