Thinning Overgrown Plum Thicket?

13 years ago

I have recently moved back home and am starting up a little homestead this year. There are a good amount of trees on the property, including an intensely overgrown thicket of plum trees. I am not sure what the variety is - they have not fruited for some time because of how crowded they are. I understand that this is because their roots are very close to the surface and they send up a lot of suckers. This little grove has not been maintained at all in at least 30 years.

I want to thin out this patch so that the plums are able to fruit. My question is -- I heard that I'm not supposed to prune plums until the summer (June, here in Maine) because if they're pruned while dormant they're more susceptible to silver leaf disease. Is this also true for cutting whole trees? I'm not sure if they are connected underground, so I don't want to leave a stump exposed during winter if there's a chance it might make the whole grove more vulnerable.

Also, I want to make sure that these are in fact plum trees. Is there a good way to identify them during the winter?

Thanks!

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Comments (2)

marknmt
13 years ago
I'm following this thread because I think I know what's going on and I want to find out if I'm right. Others here will have better answers, but I'll try.

I'm going on the assumption that yes, those are plums making the thicket. Plums do that. Also, plums send up lots of suckers, which means that there is at least some connection underground. There may be some seedlings growing too.

My thought is that they are tough and resilient, and that you should go in and remove 90% of them by any means possible- saw, shovel, backhoe, whatever it takes. Thin mercilessly to one plant every several feet. Pick the best-formed plants to stay. Get rid of anything else.

Remove roots as well as trunks- and pretend that each plant that you leave would do well in a big pot. Continue to remove competition all summer and all next year.

Then, treat each remaining tree as you would had you bought it. (I'd train to central leaders, even though these're plums, but others may wisely recommend bases.)

Now I'm open to corrections. Please!!

:-) Thanks all,

M
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severtki
13 years ago
In the likely event that individual trees are also too thick, you'll need to thin as well. Look for watersprouts (tall, completely vertical branches, no matter how thick at this point) as likely candidates for thinning, and consider thinning inner branches. If the trees have reached mature height (and fruit is out of reach), you might opt to remove the central leader(s) entirely to give the more productive scaffold limbs air and sunlight. (open center or modified central leader system)

I'm interested in what others will say about this, too, but I agree with M above -- be brutal. Use of thinning cuts (where a branch emerges from the larger branch) rather than heading cuts (cutting a long branch at its midway point) will encourage growth to other, structural limbs rather than new suckers at the point of pruning.
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Thinning Overgrown Plum Thicket?

Comments (2)

marknmt

severtki

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