A Complete Guide To Pruning Plum Trees In The Uk

The Best Plum Tree Pruning Videos

We waded through the best (and worst) plum pruning content on YouTube so you don't have to.

Pruning a Young plum tree

Pruning a Mature Plum Tree

Pruning overgrown or neglected plum trees

 

 

Essential Overview on How to Prune Plum Trees

The Plum tree family (which includes damsons, gages, mirabelles, and all sorts of hybrids) are vigorous plants that can become a tangled mess without pruning.

The fruit itself must receive sun to ripen properly, so the main aim is to make sure that branches aren't growing right on top of each other. 
Also, most varieties make more fruit than their branches can bear (especially when the tree is young), so pruning helps to prevent them from snapping.

Think of pruning like a haircut or manicure: you are not hurting the tree, you are making it beautiful and more productive in terms of top quality fruit. 

When do I prune my plum trees? 

Spring is the ideal time to prune plums (also cherries), but you can safely prune from Spring to late Summer.

During the growing season, rising sap makes a pruning cut "bleed", which prevents fungal spores from entering the wound while it heals.

If you prune in winter, there is a small risk of the silver leaf fungus entering the cut.
This disease causes dieback of entire branches and often kills the tree, so it is a concern to large scale commercial growers where it could easily spread from tree to tree, but in the home garden it is less common, especially in urban areas far from any plum farms. Still, better safe than sorry.

Pruning your plums in Spring also means that you are cutting off excess fruit buds when they are still small, so the tree hasn't wasted much energy on them.
This will set the rest of the buds up for making excellent fruit with the remaining buds.
Don't be greedy! If you try to keep all the fruit, you will end up disappointed with the quality at best, and at worst with a broken tree. 

With that being said, remove DDD at any time: dead, damaged, or diseased wood.

What tools do I need to prune plum trees? 

Pruning a plum tree require the same basic tools as any other tree:

• Secateurs and a pruning saw are your main tools
• Long-handled loppers for reaching tricky branches

How to Prune Plum Trees

Familiarise yourself with the options in front of you with this RHS Plum pruning guide.

Formative Pruning of a New Plum Tree

Pruning a new tree after planting into a bush (i.e. short trunk) or half-standard form (i.e. 'normal' trunk).

Pruning a fruit tree in year two.

Pruning a fruit tree in year three.