When is the best time to prune plums?

Plum pruning

Pruning plums can reduce nutrient consumption, promote nutrient absorption by each branch, ensure fruit production in the next year, increase benefits, and also help them survive the winter, prompting new buds to sprout faster, forming new branches, and improving the overall ornamental value.

Plum pruning time

Plum trees are suitable for proper pruning after the leaves fall in winter and when they sprout in spring, which is from December to February or March of the following year.

Generally, plums need to be pruned three to five times. Plums can be propagated by cuttings in May and June each year. You need to choose strong branches and insert them into loose and fertile soil. With careful care, they will sprout soon.

How to prune plums

1. Pruning during the young tree stage: The growth rate of plum trees is relatively fast during the young tree stage, and it is easy to grow too strong branches. They should be pruned in time. At this time, the pruning should be light, mainly pinching and removing buds to maintain a good tree shape.

2. Pruning during the fruiting period: In order to expand the crown and increase the fruiting branches, thereby achieving the purpose of increasing yield, the main trunk should be shortened and the dense branches should be pruned to make the overall tree shape better.

3. Pruning during the peak fruit-bearing period: The main task during the peak fruit-bearing period is to prune unnecessary weak branches, cut off excess branches, reduce nutrient consumption, and enable the fruiting branches to absorb more nutrients and produce better results.

4. Pruning after picking: Plum trees need to be pruned after the fruits are harvested. At this time, leaves will fall and branches will wither. The dead and old branches can be pruned away.

Plum pruning tips

The pruning of plum trees should be carried out to different degrees according to the growth strength of the trees, terrain, etc. In addition, there are great differences in the size, height, posture, orientation, etc. of the trees, so it is necessary to choose the right direction. All dense and crossed branches and leaves need to be pruned to increase air permeability and solve ventilation and lighting problems.