In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

You are only supposed to prune plums in good dry weather when they are
growing fairly vigorously. I'd have thought just after flowering would
be too early to be certain of suitable warm dry conditions. We don't
prune our neighbours plum tree at all unless there is a damaged branch
and it seems to stay almost the same size - limited by its rootstock.

They seem to grow to a particular size and then slow down a lot.

That one is complicated, and a lot of the problem is that it is in
a rather shaded position. But it is obstructing a path, among
other things.

[ Aberrant apple ]

I'd be inclined to do it a third of the thinnest back hard, open up the
centre, one third back to half length or 3/4s if nice ones and strongest
branches left as is. Then next year you have to bite the bullet and chop
back the by then very long strong stems by an appropriate amount but
with any luck the moderate ones will be a good size again and you can
pick which new growth to leave on.

If you do short back and sides all at once the tree is inclined to
respond by lots of soft sappy growth mostly going straight upwards. You
are also unlikely to get fruit at all if you massacre it.

That is very much what I want to encourage! The problem is that
it has (despite repeated attempts to prune back) developed a single
strong branch out to one side. Inter alia, it could easily break
when in fruit unless I thin very hard indeed. I need to get it
to grow in a more upright way.

Oh, and the strong branch is to the NORTH, so it's not a sunlight
effect!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.