Help! I think I've killed my plum tree...

[WeeGarden]

I put in a bare rooted plum tree in January, and grew it against a wall as a cordon (I'm sure it said it can be trained as a cordon). However, I've since read that you're not supposed to grow stone fruits as cordons as you can't prune them, so I dug it up yesterday and planted it straight in a more open area of my garden.

It's now looking a bit poorly. The ends of the new shoots are drooping, and the stalk that the single plum is on is also drooping. I guess it's a lesson to wait until Winter to transplant or dig trees up.

Has anyone had the same situation before? Advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[SarzWix]

Keep it well watered, that's the only thing I can think of. You're right, digging up trees is something that should be done when the tree is dormant. It's going to be very unhappy for a while I should think. And it'll almost definitely drop the little plum.

[FB.]

I can only assume that when you dug it out, you did some or all of:

1.
Left lots of roots behind.

2.
Badly damaged the existing roots.

3.
Left it out of the ground too long in the sun.

4.
Allowed the roots to dry while it was out of the ground (in summer, roots can dry in a matter of minutes).

.
.


This is what I'd do, if it was mine:

Leave the fruits for a few days (plants will use fruits as a water reserve in emergencies), but remove all fruits after about a week.

Push a bamboo cane into the ground several times in a circle around the base of the tree, to make a circle of several holes with a depth of about a foot and with the holes about six inches away from the trunk (at the outer spread of the roots).

Give it a good watering (10 litres over the ground within a foot of the trunk) - lots of the water will run down the cane holes and get straight to the roots.

Water with another 10 litres after a few hours.

Keep watering every three days and keep those cane holes clear for the next several weeks, to allow better water penetration into the ground.

Unless the tree recovers well, don't allow it to fruit next year, since it has a lot of root repairs to do and fruit will put heavy demands on a weak tree.

Make sure that the tree is well-fed and well watered for the rest of the growing season.

.
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I would not be surprised if the tree loses half or more of its leaves during the next few days and weeks, but there's nothing you can do to stop it. The leaves will dry and shrivel from their tips and edges, before eventually being dropped entirely. The tree is likely to drop all it's fruit within a week or two.

The tree will then struggle on until the autumn, with about half of normal leaves and a few roots. It will be putting all energy into trying to re-grow the roots. When autumn comes (Sept-Oct), the roots will start to grow strongly as they take the nutrients from the leaves for winter.

The best time to move the plum tree is Nov-Feb.


What I'm about to say will make you swear......

I don't see why you can't grow a plum as a pseudo-cordon. Plums are not supposed to be winter pruned because of silver leaf, but fruit cordons are not required to be winter pruned. Cordons are summer pruned on their soft, new, greenish growth in July. Pruning the soft, new growth of a plum tree is not likely to put it at much risk of silver leaf or canker, so I don't see why you couldn't summer prune it as a pseudo-cordon. But, having said that, a plum or cherry are best grown as bushes or trees, although fan shapes can work, which are basically a variation on a large, branched cordon.

Summer pruning also tends to control vigour and increase fruitfulness. But your plum won't be benefitting from pruning just yet!

[Snadger]

I paid about 10p for a dead twig that was supposedly a bare rooted Victoria plum. I puddled it in to the allotment, pruned off all the dead and broken bits and it appears to be thriving now!
Grew a Victoria plum in a plastic dust bin last year and it thrived througout the summer just to die completely (not just drop it's leaves) in the autumn!

[WeeGarden]

Snadger - 10p for a tree! Bargain!

I think I did a combination of (a) - damaging the roots and (b) letting them dry out.

It came with just one main thick root that bent 90o to the trunk. When I dug it up, it had a lot of fine new white ones coming from this.

I've watered it in well and mulched it with bark. The end bits of the new shoots have gone a bit crispy but the older leaves seem to have perked up by this morning. Now, all that's needed is for the single baby plum to perk up too.

What I'm about to say will make you swear......

($*£(*$%£%£!!!!

D'oh! I *knew* I should post on here before I do anything dramatic in the garden!!!

[ohbeary]

Oh dear!, as the capenters say "measure twice cut once" (the wood workers not the singers), I had a Victoria plum it was never happy, our soil is too acid and moving it nearly killed me!, it was moved again to a mates allotment where it seems happier but unfruitful and the chickens seem to like its bit of shade......