Plum Tree breaking/snapping

[GrimChili]

Hello all, I'm after some advice.

My plum tree which was in the garden when I moved in is very productive but looks in a very bad way, branches keep breaking - I think it might die but unsure of what to do... I really want to chop all the branches off and let it restArt but from reading that is not a good idea... Please help!!!

[BUFFS]

plums are prone to snapping branches, especially when laden with fruit, if it is productive tree I would fashion some props for each branch, at least until the fruit has been harvested, in the winter cut out any diseased branches and shorten any unduly long branches to reduce the weight and enjoy the fruit...

[Kirk]

Not sure about pruning in winter, plums are a stone fruit and these are susceptable to fungal infection that it more prevalent in the winter.

You could end up with a fungal infection and then have to really heavily prune the tree or lose it altogether - I lost a plum to silver leaf infection.

I suspect you may have to prune sort of now, or wait until next spring/summer.

You will probably get several pruning options suggested so go look up what places like the RHS say or recommend.

[boundtothesoil]

I suspect you may have to prune sort of now, or wait until next spring/summer.

I agree with Kirk on this. I'm cutting out and/or tidying up any broken branches on my plum trees as soon as I've finished picking them this coming week. I'd rather not leave these hanging 'by a thread' over winter. I do paint the larger wounds with Arbrex even though my trees are riddled with localised cankers.
I guess the trick is to either to thin the plums out as recommended in the books well before they become too heavy, or magically control the growth of the tree so that it only produces strong branches - quite difficult when most of the advice is too minimise the pruning of plums where ever possible.
I have also used wooden 'y' shaped props as BUFFS suggested, with as many as 7 or 8 per tree. They work well if cut to right length .

[TrialAndError]

If you really believe some of the branches will break over winter then you may as well prune them now and make good clean cuts rather than allow the jagged and split end wounds which occur when breakage is due to wind damage.

As far as pruning plum trees goes I think that the problem occurs when regular but relatively minor pruning is not carried out annually. The pruning job then becomes a major one and plum trees do not take kindly to that. Minor but regular annual pruning in June is probably the best course of action.