Carriage- afraid i am not experienced enough to answer your question, but i have a question to you- is that tree growing out of a half whisky barrel?

if yes, difficult to believe that such a large tree can survive in such a confined space.

lycheeluva-
That was my first thought as well. -Glenn

Yes you can just thin it out and keep the privacy. Thin out dead, crossing, out of place, and overly thick branches. If you have spring frost problems, I'd keep most of the fruiting spurs and thin the fruit after frost danger passes. You also might want to start removing about 20% of the larger branches each year. This will give you new wood with new fruiting spurs. After about 4-5 yrs the fruiting spurs get old and need renewal.

The Fruitnut

Nice tree, I wish mine were that big. I just got a video on pruning from my library, still studying it up, so can't help. But good luck with pruning

I think it's cool how that tree grew through barrel and the cobble stones.

Pruning is about the economy of structural wood- using the least amount of structural wood to hold the maximum amount of small bearing wood. Most Jap plums defy this economy by sending out large zigzagging branches and an inadequate amount of smaller secondary wood.

You compromise a lot with these varieties but always favor smaller wood and straighter wood when making thinning decisions. I never think about spurs at all with Jap plums except to cut some of the vegetative wood back to them, which helps deinvigorate the trees somewhat. It's not like you have to worry about flower production.

Excessively long branches I try to cut back to a small branch when possible but sometimes will leave a stub on 2-year wood. I'll stub 1 year wood to try to produce secondary branching but not to keep a tree in bounds- for that cut back to 2 year wood.

I have no confidence that explanation was at all helpful, but it's all I have right now. European plums are so much more cooperartive. Good luck.

Wow, very helpful!

Fruitnut, you say to remove the "overly thick" and 20% of the larger branches. I know it's a dumb question, but how do I decide what overly thick and "larger" means?

Harvestman, your explanation was definitely helpful!

Let me ask this: if I let some of the tall vertical growth keep growing, will those bear fruit? I read that fruit only came on the more horizontal ones, but there appear to be flower buds galore on even the tall, straight, thin ones this year (though last year there were only leaves).

And yes, it's grown out of the bottom of the barrel and into the cobblestones! They are 150 year old cobblestones, and there's about 3/4 inch in between each one, so there's room there...

I forgot to add one fascinating fact (and question!!). That thick, low branch that grows out the right side there--that's a grafted peach branch! It didn't do too well. TONS of peaches, none of which were edible. They made the branch way too heavy, never got enough sun, the branch is smashing into the fence (and most of the fruit only grew on the end there, and they were diseased. I have NO idea what to do with that!!! Suggestions?? Because of space constraints and b/c it has grown to reach so far out beyond what it can handle in weight, I obviously need to prune it pretty dramatically. But the amt. that I figure I need to prune (to stop it from growing into the fence anymore) would basically cut back all of the vegetation and fruit. Should I do that??

THANK YOU!!!

If you leave some of the tall, vertical branches for privacy, they will also produce fruit. Watch the overall shape as the fruit on the taller branches will probably be picked up from the ground since you won't be able to reach them--and thus won't be worth much. The fruit you pick will come from those lower branches so you don't want the taller ones shading them out.