Very unhappy Victoria plum tree

[Forage420]

It's quite a few years old and sadly very neglected, I never trained it and this is what you get.

What can I do to recover it?

[veggiechicken]

Have all the branches snapped off or have they been cut?
I can't make out what's happened.

[Guest]

Unfortunately there is no easy, obvious or quick fix. In reality you are probably better to start off with a new specimen. Is there anything wrong with the fruit? (just there is a fair few fruit on the floor and the rest are ripe looking but not picked )

If it was mine I would look at reducing the thick stuff (but not too much that it depletes the tree of energy) and supporting and training younger stuff to get some height back into it. Leaving more growth than eventually desired with the aim of accepting it will be at least 3 years before it starts to come into its own - shape wise, growth wise, fruiting wise.

[Forage420]

The two broken branches you see were taken out by wind.

I just wish I could bend back that main branch that also broken 2 years ago and bended itself wonk

The fruit is actually alright but lost loads of it on the branches that got broken off

[fishpond]

I would:-
Remove and store all good plums, either eat them now or let them ripen.
Remove and burn the remainder.
Using a sharp pruning saw, remove all damaged/diseased/dead wood back to good wood, leaving a clean cut and paint with Arbrex.
Remove any damaged/diseased/dead wood under 1/2" diameter with pruners and paint the clean cuts with arbrex.
Also remove any shoots/buds from below graft union. (paint with Arbrex)
It will either survive and throw up new shoots from above the graft union or die, by next summer.

[nickdub]

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It's quite a few years old and sadly very neglected, I never trained it and this is what you get.

What can I do to recover it?

For once I'm going to go with different advice to what you have had so far.

I would use a sharp saw and a knife to trim the broken ends of the branches back minimally to clean cuts and that's all for now.

I'd leave the rest of the tree completely alone, but put compost/manure around the root area over winter.

I'd reassess the situation next year when the tree starts to grow again. At that point I'd consider putting in a strong framework of stakes to tie the branches to to get a better shape started.

It's hard to be sure from the photos but the tree looks fundamentally healthy to me, but was obviously carrying to big a crop of for its size. Two things to do about this next year if there are a lot of fruit set again a) in May or June take some of the off by snapping the stems taking care not to damage the spurs ( you can use scissors if the fruit is low enough) b) plum branches are much more brittle than other fruit, if carrying a large crop then either support them from below with props or from above with ropes tied up to a central pole.

[boundtothesoil]

A seriously misshapen plum tree is for life, so I'd dig it out and plant a new tree this winter.

[devonuk]

Ok more conflicting advice: I have found that Victoria plums are tricky to establish - they will last 3or 4 years and then give up for no particular reason. Googling shows this to be a common experience. Your tree looks like a survivor - trees each have their own individual immune system like we do, and your tree's seems to be in cracking form. It is also big enough that stump removal will be a pain if you try to get rid of it, and you will then have a problem of what to replace it with, because you won't want to plant another plum or plum relative in the same place. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think it looks rather cool as it is. For all those reasons I would keep it going for as long as it wants to remain productive. Tidy up the breaks as much as you can, and be vigilant about fruit thinning and supporting heavily laden branches so you don't have any further breakages.

[Martin H]

I also vote to clean up the wounds and let it recover on its own. It will always be an interesting shape but there's nothing wrong with that!

[Mark_Riga]

If you do decide to get a new tree, you could always keep this one going while it is fruiting till the replacement takes over. In the spring Aldi and a few others have cheap trees that are always worth a punt. I've had variable success with plums. I bought a Victoria one from Aldi several years ago (about 12 I would think) that looks a bit ropey leaning on a fence but it produces a heavy crop every year. One from a garden centre from about 5 years ago , not sure of the variety it looks good but so far had 1 plum last year and 2 this (with 3 grubs in them). I bought a Czar this spring for £5 from B&M but when unwrapped had bugger all roots on it. I planted it in a big pot but It didn't get any leaves in the spring and I thought it was a goner. I put the plastic sleeve it came in on to preserve moisture and went away for 10 days. When I returned it had sprouted quite a few leave. In the Autumn, I'll check for roots and hopefully plant it out. I'm hoping that nursing it for a couple of years will pay off.
So as the one you have is a heavy cropper, I'd follow the advice of Martin and the other renovators.

[Forage420]

Thanks for the advice. I'll renovate then and cut back the two stems a little to clean them up.

This tree was planted around 2008-2009 if I recall. Never did anything for it and feel guilty about leaving it like this. I had kilos and kilos of undeveloped plumbs when the branches snapped. It all happened when I cleaned up the cage and the branches were clearly using the old netting as support.

There is woodlice crawling about in one of the stumps so I better sort it today. It's heartbreaking seeing the tree sending out loads of sap to mend the wound. The fruit itself is very tasty, reason it's on the floor is because there's too much of it, can't eat anymore. I need to look into pickling.

[fishpond]

Plum wine, plums in brandy, apple and plum pie, plum leathers, de-stone them and freeze, send them to me, etc.
It needs to be sorted soonest - certainly before the wet and cold weather arrives.
Next year you need to look into thinning the fruit (if it looks like producing a very heavy crop)

[devonuk]

@ Mark_Riga At risk of being accused of hijacking - I have had an Opal and a Victoria off Morrisons at a fiver each, this year and last. So far, so good - my question is, what rootstock do you think cheap supermarket plum trees are usually on? My guess is dwarfing, and therefore probably Pixy - what do you think?

[Hereford fruit grower]

I'd try to regrow it from the roots. That gives a slight head start vs getting a new tree established.

If it dies, asyou have reasonable soil I'd replace by a plum tree on dwarfing VVA 1 rootstock. Small trees are easily pruned and picked from the ground.

I don't have Victoria. I think it's overrated. You should thin it heavily when it overcrops but not many people do it in time.

If I had to plant one heavy-cropping, foolproof plum I'd use Rivers' Early Prolific. It also needs thinning, but I've never had broken branches:

https://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/...early-prolific

[veggiechicken]

@ Mark_Riga At risk of being accused of hijacking - I have had an Opal and a Victoria off Morrisons at a fiver each, this year and last. So far, so good - my question is, what rootstock do you think cheap supermarket plum trees are usually on? My guess is dwarfing, and therefore probably Pixy - what do you think?

A couple of years ago we put Aldi on the spot for info on the rootstocks. http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1318871


Plums, – Will be budded onto a “St Julian A” root stock or a “Myrobolane” root stock these are virus free and semi vigorous growing.