One year my preacher gave me several pear trees that came up in his compost
pile and I planted two. I took instructions on how to prune them and
learned all the neat stuff about how to prune what. Then I went to my
preachers house to look at his. He had wind gust problems in his yard, and
had pruned both of the ones he had planted, straight up on opposite sides.
He did that to the wind would hit it on a narrow side and not blow them over
or break any branches. His kids accused him of crucifying them. I feel
that the trees are yours to do with as you please. If you want to prune
them the suggested way for maximum production, as I do, that is fine, but in
each case, the final choice is what the owner of the trees wants to do.

Dwayne



"Kate Morgan" wrote in message
. ..

The open canopy pruning method is used on peaches, apricots, and
nectarines.
You can prune your plum any way you want to, but you will reduce the
amount

I am glad you said that plums can be pruned any way we want to Dwayne,
we have a young plum tree in the garden and two years ago someone let
our old pony graze on the lawn, this she did happily but she also ate
most of the plum tree which was about 3 2 years old at this point, it
hasnt produced anything since and is a very funny shape altho having
said that it has put on a huge amount of growth this year so maybe I
should just let it get on with it and see what happens :-)

kate