If there is no wound nearby then it is probably bacterial canker which entered through a shoot. Sometimes trees will also ooze sap from random spots but the fact that some of the wood looks darkened makes it sound like a canker. On cherries that disease is very bad; I have had it on my plums and it generally has not spread so I am less concerned. On my cherries I prune it all out immediately before it spreads too far. If you are concerned either prune off the limb or if its a major scaffold get a knife and cut until you get to nice looking wood on all sides. I'd be interested to hear how severe others have found bacterial canker on plums to be. On peach trees I have also generally found it not so bad, but I have one variety which seems highly prone to it and hard to cure. Scott

I did a quick Google search and got this, from the link below - "Bruce" Plums - The plum variety "Bruce" is a hybrid plum produced by crossing a Japanese plum with a member of another plum group, called European plums. A tree that can be 10 to 15 feet tall at maturity, it blooms in early spring, producing masses of small, bright white flowers. Somewhat earlier to ripen than "Methley," "Bruce" plums are usually ready for picking by the start of June. The fruit is especially large and has distinctly red skin and yellow or orange flesh. The variety is generally not self-fruitful and requires a nearby pollinator such as "Methley" or another Japanese-type cultivar for cross-pollination." Here is a link that might be useful: Bruce & Methley Plum trees

Ramble, there is no truly dwarfing plum. About 3/4 size (semi-dwarf) is the most dwarfing you can get. So its not a huge difference. Raintree sells several plums on semi-dwarfing rootstocks if you want to look at another source. From my experience of those I would put Superior and Red Ace at the top. Many plums are difficult to get to produce or are disease magnets. Those two have been good for me so far and they are different enough in flavor. I think their ripening time is a bit close though. Shiro is boring. Santa Rosa plums are too disease-prone as is El Heart. Methley is not the best tasting but otherwise is excellent. I have no personal experience with the rest. Scott

@Jason Thanks for your reply! Very helpful. Here is some more info to the Qs: Q1: They were taken in June, no growth yet, but have kept most of the leaves they were taken with. Not sure if I should expect any growth this year since it's getting late and they are young. The parent plum had most of it's growth May - beginning of july , then took a break, it's starting to grow again now on some of the branch tips but it will not be a lot, since most of the growth is done for the year (1-2+ft). My cherry tree also stopped growing mid-summer with next years buds becoming more visible. So based on the pattern of my other trees, I don't know whether I should expect these cuttings to have any more growth. But since these 2 are in soil together already I won't disturb them this year then, just acclimate outside. Q2: Agreed, will separate the perlite cuttings this weekend into individual pots, after rooting in perlite in a very humid + moist bright environment in a clear container their is more algae/mold on the plastic than I would like...but the roots still look beautiful: tender, clean, and white starting to come out of the holes on the bottom so I think it will be better to move now. Q3: Have been taking my time adjusting humidity so far by taking bag off more longer and longer each day... Q4: will adjust gradually but no new leaves...yet....not sure if there will be any this year...only older ones that it did not drop but are still nice and green. Q5: Would really love to hear more opinions on this question. I'm not sure what to do because they aren't really tropical and I hear that the dormancy period is super important for plant health. At the same time I don't really think they will do well inside because it's naturally a full sun tree which might suffer indoors especially since winters are very cloudy with not a lot of sun. So I don't want to set them back. But I am also worried that they may not have enough time to harden off and go dormant before the first frost in october, even though temps in the garage are pretty mild even in the middle of winter (barely above freezing). Q6: I have a good variety of pot sizes from tiny to really big, so I guess we'll see but they have to survive first. Q7: Still looking for an answer!