Plum Tree looks nice, no plumbs

[Elahrairah]

I have a tree about 15 feet high.

Last year we had about 20 plumbs grow on it. I had a guy come out to prune some other trees and mentioned how dissapointed we were in the low number of plumbs. He said if we pruned it back a bit, we would get more. So I paid him to take care of it.

Now summer is over and we haven't seen one prune. We fertilize according to the directions and our lemon, orange and mandarain trees are all producing fruit.

Am I missing anything? All leaves look nice and green, so the tree isn't dying or anything...no disease or injury I can see...

Thanks.

[JONA878]

I have a tree about 15 feet high.

Last year we had about 20 plumbs grow on it. I had a guy come out to prune some other trees and mentioned how dissapointed we were in the low number of plumbs. He said if we pruned it back a bit, we would get more. So I paid him to take care of it.

Now summer is over and we haven't seen one prune. We fertilize according to the directions and our lemon, orange and mandarain trees are all producing fruit.

Am I missing anything? All leaves look nice and green, so the tree isn't dying or anything...no disease or injury I can see...

Thanks.

Unless a plum tree has really got its feet down and is growing too strongly it doesn't pay to over prune them.
If you do have to remove crossing wood of over strong uprights they should be pruned out while the tree is still growing strongly in the summer months.
This helps to keep the threat of silver leaf and bacterial canker infection to as low as possable.

The main thing on plum trees is to try to get as many of the branches down to as near to horizontal level, or at least as low as you can get them without snapping.
This helps slow the sap run down and also opens the buds to good light for initiation. Very strong branches wiill not bend but will snap so only branches that are still supple enough to bend fairly easily should be tried.
Branches can be held down by weighting with string tied to a stone filled bag.
If you just cut out wood the tree will often respond by just growing stronger and fruiting less.
Branches tied down in the spring will usually sett in the required position in about a month and can then be released.