Yesterday I realised I'd made a serious error in sawing off a major
branch )about 5" thick) of a mature plum tree which had been giving the tree
a lopsided look. I only found out today that you should never prune a plum
tree in winter due to susceptibility to silver leaf disease. If I treat the
cut tomorrow by painting with Bayer 'seal and heal' fungicide will that
prevent the problem arising or will 48 hours exposure to the elements of the
wound already be too late?

On 01/02/2015 15:47, FrankB wrote:
Yesterday I realised I'd made a serious error in sawing off a major
branch )about 5" thick) of a mature plum tree which had been giving the tree
a lopsided look. I only found out today that you should never prune a plum
tree in winter due to susceptibility to silver leaf disease. If I treat the
cut tomorrow by painting with Bayer 'seal and heal' fungicide will that
prevent the problem arising or will 48 hours exposure to the elements of the
wound already be too late?


It's already potentially too late. Anything nasty will have already
entered the wound. Using a wound treatment now will only seal disease
in. I suggest you wait until the summer and see how the tree reacts.
You may be lucky.
--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay

"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 01/02/2015 15:47, FrankB wrote:
Yesterday I realised I'd made a serious error in sawing off a major
branch )about 5" thick) of a mature plum tree which had been giving the
tree
a lopsided look. I only found out today that you should never prune a
plum
tree in winter due to susceptibility to silver leaf disease. If I treat
the
cut tomorrow by painting with Bayer 'seal and heal' fungicide will that
prevent the problem arising or will 48 hours exposure to the elements of
the
wound already be too late?


It's already potentially too late. Anything nasty will have already
entered the wound. Using a wound treatment now will only seal disease
in. I suggest you wait until the summer and see how the tree reacts.
You may be lucky.

This stuff is a fungicide so by painting it on the wound any spores that
have already alighted there I would have hoped woud be wiped out or at least
rendered inactive. I mean it's possible that silver leaf spores could have
alighted on the wound seconds after cutting. So are you suggesting that the
fungicide sealant has little purpose anyway?

On 01/02/2015 16:22, FrankB wrote:
"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 01/02/2015 15:47, FrankB wrote:
Yesterday I realised I'd made a serious error in sawing off a major
branch )about 5" thick) of a mature plum tree which had been giving the
tree
a lopsided look. I only found out today that you should never prune a
plum
tree in winter due to susceptibility to silver leaf disease. If I treat
the
cut tomorrow by painting with Bayer 'seal and heal' fungicide will that
prevent the problem arising or will 48 hours exposure to the elements of
the
wound already be too late?


It's already potentially too late. Anything nasty will have already
entered the wound. Using a wound treatment now will only seal disease
in. I suggest you wait until the summer and see how the tree reacts.
You may be lucky.

This stuff is a fungicide so by painting it on the wound any spores that
have already alighted there I would have hoped woud be wiped out or at least
rendered inactive. I mean it's possible that silver leaf spores could have
alighted on the wound seconds after cutting. So are you suggesting that the
fungicide sealant has little purpose anyway?



It's the "seal" part of the "seal and heal" which is the problem. If
you apply 2 days after the cut, you may be sealing disease in. Below is
a link to Bayer's description of its product. It is implicit that you
apply the paint immediately (though I would still have my doubts).
However, it also suggests you cut into the branch again to gain a clean
cut surface. It was on my mind to suggest this but, if you made the cut
correctly in the first place, you would have cut back to the 'collar'
(raised and often creased area between the trunk and branch), which
means there is no more wood left to cut out.

http://www.bayergarden.co.uk/Product...-and-Heal.aspx
--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay

"Spider" wrote in message ...
On 01/02/2015 16:22, FrankB wrote:
"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 01/02/2015 15:47, FrankB wrote:
Yesterday I realised I'd made a serious error in sawing off a major
branch )about 5" thick) of a mature plum tree which had been giving the
tree
a lopsided look. I only found out today that you should never prune a
plum
tree in winter due to susceptibility to silver leaf disease. If I treat
the
cut tomorrow by painting with Bayer 'seal and heal' fungicide will that
prevent the problem arising or will 48 hours exposure to the elements of
the
wound already be too late?


It's already potentially too late. Anything nasty will have already
entered the wound. Using a wound treatment now will only seal disease
in. I suggest you wait until the summer and see how the tree reacts.
You may be lucky.

This stuff is a fungicide so by painting it on the wound any spores that
have already alighted there I would have hoped woud be wiped out or at least
rendered inactive. I mean it's possible that silver leaf spores could have
alighted on the wound seconds after cutting. So are you suggesting that the
fungicide sealant has little purpose anyway?



It's the "seal" part of the "seal and heal" which is the problem. If
you apply 2 days after the cut, you may be sealing disease in. Below is
a link to Bayer's description of its product. It is implicit that you
apply the paint immediately (though I would still have my doubts).
However, it also suggests you cut into the branch again to gain a clean
cut surface. It was on my mind to suggest this but, if you made the cut
correctly in the first place, you would have cut back to the 'collar'
(raised and often creased area between the trunk and branch), which
means there is no more wood left to cut out.

http://www.bayergarden.co.uk/Product...-and-Heal.aspx

Trouble is it's not my tree but a friend whose garden I've been slowly restoring. He won't be best pleased if I tell him I may have killed his plum tree. I'm wondering whether I should warn him in advance.

I''ve got about ½" of projected branch left that I can further saw back. The stuff I'm getting tomorrow isn't quite the same as your link but according to Bayer serves the same purpose from the description (below links). So I'll try that tomorrow and paint immediately. .

Here - http://tinyurl.com/n9lenaz
and
Here - http://tinyurl.com/q8h8uhc

On 01/02/2015 18:41, FrankB wrote:

"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 01/02/2015 16:22, FrankB wrote:
"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 01/02/2015 15:47, FrankB wrote:
Yesterday I realised I'd made a serious error in sawing off a major
branch )about 5" thick) of a mature plum tree which had been
giving the
tree
a lopsided look. I only found out today that you should never prune a
plum
tree in winter due to susceptibility to silver leaf disease. If I
treat
the
cut tomorrow by painting with Bayer 'seal and heal' fungicide
will that
prevent the problem arising or will 48 hours exposure to the
elements of
the
wound already be too late?


It's already potentially too late. Anything nasty will have already
entered the wound. Using a wound treatment now will only seal disease
in. I suggest you wait until the summer and see how the tree reacts.
You may be lucky.

This stuff is a fungicide so by painting it on the wound any spores
that
have already alighted there I would have hoped woud be wiped out or
at least
rendered inactive. I mean it's possible that silver leaf spores
could have
alighted on the wound seconds after cutting. So are you suggesting
that the
fungicide sealant has little purpose anyway?



It's the "seal" part of the "seal and heal" which is the problem. If
you apply 2 days after the cut, you may be sealing disease in. Below is
a link to Bayer's description of its product. It is implicit that you
apply the paint immediately (though I would still have my doubts).
However, it also suggests you cut into the branch again to gain a clean
cut surface. It was on my mind to suggest this but, if you made the cut
correctly in the first place, you would have cut back to the 'collar'
(raised and often creased area between the trunk and branch), which
means there is no more wood left to cut out.

http://www.bayergarden.co.uk/Product...-and-Heal.aspx

Trouble is it's not my tree but a friend whose garden I've been slowly
restoring. He won't be best pleased if I tell him I may have killed his
plum tree. I'm wondering whether I should warn him in advance.
I''ve got about ½" of projected branch left that I can further saw
back. The stuff I'm getting tomorrow isn't quite the same as your link
but according to Bayer serves the same purpose from the description
(below links). So I'll try that tomorrow and paint immediately. .

Here - http://tinyurl.com/n9lenaz
and
Here - http://tinyurl.com/q8h8uhc


Oh dear, that is worrying for you. Well, honesty is the best policy.
You wouldn't have harmed his tree deliberately and, indeed, you may not
have harmed it at all.
In your position, I would own up and explain about the extra cut, but
put it off until we get some good weather, perhaps April.
Your links were not underscored or useable, even when I entered them
myself. Sorry. I suspect they were images of the cut on the tree?
--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay

On Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:28:44 +0000, Spider wrote:

On 01/02/2015 18:41, FrankB wrote:


Trouble is it's not my tree but a friend whose garden I've been slowly
restoring. He won't be best pleased if I tell him I may have killed his
plum tree. I'm wondering whether I should warn him in advance.
I''ve got about ½" of projected branch left that I can further saw
back. The stuff I'm getting tomorrow isn't quite the same as your link
but according to Bayer serves the same purpose from the description
(below links). So I'll try that tomorrow and paint immediately. .

Here - http://tinyurl.com/n9lenaz and Here - http://tinyurl.com/q8h8uhc


Oh dear, that is worrying for you. Well, honesty is the best policy.
You wouldn't have harmed his tree deliberately and, indeed, you may not
have harmed it at all.
In your position, I would own up and explain about the extra cut, but
put it off until we get some good weather, perhaps April.
Your links were not underscored or useable, even when I entered them
myself. Sorry. I suspect they were images of the cut on the tree?

The best thing to do now is leave it to dry out. At the very most, you
could spray some copper solution on it (commercially available Bordeaux
mixture). Don't worry too much, although there's a risk, there's also a
good chance it will be just fine. IMHO the seal & heal stuff is a rip
off. Always a temptation to "do something", and of course in the past
wound sealers were recommended, but now pretty much any trained tree
person will tell you to let it dry naturally.

-E



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:28:44 +0000, Spider wrote:

On 01/02/2015 18:41, FrankB wrote:


Trouble is it's not my tree but a friend whose garden I've been slowly
restoring. He won't be best pleased if I tell him I may have killed his
plum tree. I'm wondering whether I should warn him in advance.
I''ve got about ½" of projected branch left that I can further saw
back. The stuff I'm getting tomorrow isn't quite the same as your link
but according to Bayer serves the same purpose from the description
(below links). So I'll try that tomorrow and paint immediately. .

Here - http://tinyurl.com/n9lenaz and Here - http://tinyurl.com/q8h8uhc


Oh dear, that is worrying for you. Well, honesty is the best policy.
You wouldn't have harmed his tree deliberately and, indeed, you may not
have harmed it at all.
In your position, I would own up and explain about the extra cut, but
put it off until we get some good weather, perhaps April.
Your links were not underscored or useable, even when I entered them
myself. Sorry. I suspect they were images of the cut on the tree?

The best thing to do now is leave it to dry out. At the very most, you
could spray some copper solution on it (commercially available Bordeaux
mixture). Don't worry too much, although there's a risk, there's also a
good chance it will be just fine. IMHO the seal & heal stuff is a rip
off. Always a temptation to "do something", and of course in the past
wound sealers were recommended, but now pretty much any trained tree
person will tell you to let it dry naturally.

Opinions seem very divided over the use of tree pruning sealants. The Yanks
say they are no use, whereas long experienced gardeners here in the UK on
the whole favour them. I've bought 'Heal And Seal' now which is a fungicide
as well as being a sealant, and appled it yesterday. I just have to keep my
fingers crossed that silver leaf fungus doesn't appear come spring.

FrankB wrote:
: Yesterday I realised I'd made a serious error in sawing off a major
: branch )about 5" thick) of a mature plum tree which had been giving the tree
: a lopsided look. I only found out today that you should never prune a plum
: tree in winter due to susceptibility to silver leaf disease. If I treat the
: cut tomorrow by painting with Bayer 'seal and heal' fungicide will that
: prevent the problem arising or will 48 hours exposure to the elements of the
: wound already be too late?

Do you know what variety it is? Victora is supposed to be particularly susceptible, most others less so.

Tom.


Ps. The email address in the header is just a spam-trap.
--
Tom Crane, Dept. Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill,
Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, England.
Email: T dot Crane at rhul dot ac dot uk

] wrote in message
...
FrankB wrote:
: Yesterday I realised I'd made a serious error in sawing off a major
: branch )about 5" thick) of a mature plum tree which had been giving the
tree
: a lopsided look. I only found out today that you should never prune a
plum
: tree in winter due to susceptibility to silver leaf disease. If I treat
the
: cut tomorrow by painting with Bayer 'seal and heal' fungicide will that
: prevent the problem arising or will 48 hours exposure to the elements of
the
: wound already be too late?

Do you know what variety it is? Victora is supposed to be particularly
susceptible, most others less so.

No. It belongs to a neighbour whose garden I have been restoring. He didn't
even know that he had a plum tree as it is growing in the main bed and has
been smothered for years by ivy. Only the big side branch that I recently
sawed off protuded from the ivy and bore plums last year which resembled
Victoria, but that was in late June and I'd be guessing.

Now that I've removed all the ivy it is quite a tall tree for a plum, at
least 15' high but then the ones I have come across have probably been grown
on dwarfing rootstock. The lower thin branches and stems are all dead
anyway, and I've removed them. The higher ones look alive with fruit buds
already well visible.