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Advice needed for pruning dwarf plum trees

tuffnelljohntuffnelljohn Posts: 284
in Fruit & veg
Hi guys

I have 2 dwarf plum trees that I bought last summer. I know I need to prune them around now, but which twigs to take off? Perhaps you cant see from the photos, but some of the twigs are growing forwards - shall I prune these to encourage more outward growth left/right of the trunk?

One tree has two leaders and the other tree has one. Should I prune those or will that stump the growth?

Also, the position of these only gets sun up until noon-ish. Do you think I should reposition them somewhere southern-facing to get full sun throughout the day?

Any advice muchly appreciated! Thanks!


Posts

  • februarysgirlfebruarysgirl Posts: 835
    I'm not an expert on plum trees but I have a couple of dwarf ones myself (pixie rootstock) and to be honest the branches look OK to me. As I understand it, you should prune branches that cross and any that are growing inwards and from those photos you don't appear to have any! As I understand it though, plums of any size won't be happy for long in a container.
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Our plums (in the ground) have opening flowers on them now for the last few weeks and so we don't do any pruning now.
  • tuffnelljohntuffnelljohn Posts: 284
    Thanks guys. Perhaps I should leave them alone.

    One of the reasons why I bought dwarf fruit trees is because I heard they do well in containers - and are easy to move and protect from birds. I knew it was too good to be true.  :|
  • februarysgirlfebruarysgirl Posts: 835
    I know I definitely saw it on this site Orange Pippin Trees and I'm positive I saw it elsewhere. The thing with growing trees in pots is that as they get bigger, you need to keep repotting them and the bigger they get the more difficult it's going to be. My plum trees (Victoria and Czar) are about five years old and one of them was soaring above my fence last year. I have a feeling it was mislabelled and is St Julien rootstock, not pixy. This photo is about 7 months after I planted them 



    This was about a year later https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1057431/plum-and-green-gage-pruning

    They're in open bottomed raised beds and although some of their roots reach the ground, some of them are restricted by the beds and their buttresses. The internal width of the beds is around 65cm, but they still grow A LOT. When you take into account how much they can grow by in a year and the size and weight of a filled container, I definitely don't think you could describe them as easy to move!

    I'm sure it's possible to keep the size down with hefty pruning and the container would no doubt have an effect but I couldn't say to what degree. 
  • tuffnelljohntuffnelljohn Posts: 284
    Oh. Hmm, ok.  :D:D Perhaps I need to find a place for them in the ground somewhere. :|
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    You should only prune them in Autumn,  I usually do it in August, on a dry day ( to stop silver leaf disease) cutting back long side growth that has no fruit. Top growth only when your tree has reached the right height for you. They will grow at least a foot a year, even on pixi root stock @tuffnelljohn so that's why in the ground is best.
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