Fruits & Nuts - Plum
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  (March) I am writing concerning my young plum tree. It is about 8 years old and has white blooms already on it... My question is, if I can trim it back now or will it hurt it?  Also if I need to spray it with anything and if so what do I need to spray it with?

  It will not hurt a fruit tree to prune it while it is blooming-it would actually do more harm not to prune it. People usually try to get the pruning done before blooming so you can see what you are doing without any flowers or foliage. But, by all means prune if you haven't. Plums require a fairly rigid spray schedule to remain insect and disease free. Start the spray schedule when two-thirds of the flower petals fall, and continue according to the label directions. Use a combination fungicide and insecticide home fruit spray.

  (September) Can I trim back a 20 foot tall plum tree? I can't harvest the fruit in the top 4 to 5 feet of the tree. If yes, how and when?

  By all means, get your tree within picking height. The time to prune would be in late February. Severe pruning may interfere with production for a year or so, but with regular pruning you should be able to maintain size, and have production.

  I planted two Japanese plum trees a few years ago. I am not sure which variety they were. When I bought them, the nursery told me that they had to have cross pollination, so I bought two of them. They bloomed great this year, but there is no resulting fruit. I did not have any late freezes. What happened?

  If your tree requires cross pollination, that means you must have two different varieties. ‘Shiro’, ‘Ozark Premier’, ‘Santa Rosa’ and ‘Wickson’ can all interchange pollen. If you can, try to find out which variety you planted, and add one of the others to your planting, and in time, you should get a harvest.

  The enclosed pictures show our three year old Shiro Plum tree. Its leaves began to change color suddenly, going from green to brown in a matter of days. It was loaded with plums. I noticed the plums had also begun to shrivel, so I picked all of the plums off then. We got six gallons of good tasting plums. But I am worried about the tree. I did notice that on a smaller plum tree that has no plums yet, a bunch of sap on the trunk. Are plums hard to grow in our area?

  Plums are sensitive to borers–anything that weakens the tree–heat or drought, can cause them to be more susceptible. Check around the base of the larger tree. Are there any holes above ground, or slightly below soil line? The pictures don't look good for the survivability of the tree. With the heavy fruit load, the tree was using up its stored resources as fast as possible, and probably couldn't take the current heat and humidity stress. The younger tree may have borers also, but because it is young and vigorous, it is possible that the sap has either pushed out the marauding borers, or drowned them. Sprays of Dursban on the trunk of the tree and around the base in the spring and late summer, can help to prevent it. Contact your local county extension office for a home fruit spray schedule.

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