Hole in fork of 30 year old Victoria Plum Tree

[isabelclark]

I have just discovered there is a 10p size hole in the fork of my plum tree. When it was young the top, fruit laden half broke off in a storm so we have sort of 2 points now. Inside the hole the wood appears to be rotten near the entrance. Is this likely to be the end of this tree? I would hate to lose it as we have so many plums that all my neighbours have bags of plums every harvest.

[boundtothesoil]

Older Victoria plum trees often suffer from major splitting, usually due to the weight of fruit being too great as in your previous case. A 'rotting crotch' is also pretty common and will almost certainly weaken the union and predispose it to another split one day.

However, these trees usually survive for several years after a large split, providing a functional trunk is left to supply the remaining branches, and it should continue to fruit on the remaining branches. Also, it's overall shape may gradually recover given new compensatory growth over several years.

If it were mine, I'd keep the tree, but maybe plant another young plum tree nearby as a kind of insurance policy just in case the old one dies.

[Kier]

or you could make a hard wood plug and tap it in the hole