To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] pruning plums
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:22:06 -0400
Thanks Alan. I won't decide until I have the pruners in my hand, but
right now I'm thinking I'll go for an open center on the 2 Europeans and
a modified central leader on the Alderman. Maybe I can keep the
Alderman under control by repeatedly cutting back the central leader to
a weaker shoot and eventually letting the lower scaffolds grow up (and
out) to compete with it.
My yard seems to grow plums very well, for some reason. In spite of the
short growing season the slower growing Opal is probably 7 feet tall
with some good horizontal branches well on their way. The other 2 are
well over 10 feet tall (but no more than an inch across the lower
trunk). These were no more than 4 feet tall when I planted them in April
of 2007.
Steve in the Adirondacks
Alan Haigh wrote:
Forgot to mention that I always start off by training trees to a central
leader but sooner or later settle often on an open center.