I enjoyed listening to your reasoning for making the cuts; orcharding is an art as well as craft. What to cut away is easy, but where to do it so that the tree grows where you want it is more thoughtful. Very well done and explained. Thank you!
This was really informative. I have three fruit trees (two apple and one plum) that I am trying to 'tame', and I think I am now going to be a little 'braver' in how I approach them! My thanks.
Hello. This was such a informative video. Thank you. I have wanted to find out the rules for correct spur pruning and you have answered that nicely. I have three year old espalier apple and pear trees in my garden and I have pruned them partially incorrectly until now. Seven trees in New Zealand thank you. Lol. Also I think you have a wonderful David Attenborough tone about you. Excellent.
Thank you so much for your comment. For spur pruning I have two other videos you might like to see as they provide more detail on summer pruning (ua-cam.com/video/VpKHRcNasS0/v-deo.html) and winter pruning (ua-cam.com/video/ugWwH01qqoI/v-deo.html) - these are specifically about cordon/espalier apples and pears so exactly what you would need, I think. Best of luck with your trees :)
thank you for this ...what is the best size pot to grow a plum tree in iv got it in a 30cm pot at the moment with fruit on its been in that for for 2 yrs, all so it needs pruning when is it best time to do that thanks
I think ideally you would want to finish any pruning of stone fruits - peaches, plums, cherries, etc. this month. Depending on the condition of the tree, I would be tempted to leave it now and make any formative cuts after bud break in the spring. Pot size is an interesting question, because there is no easy answer. I would tend to pick a larger pot to give the roots plenty of space; they also dry out a little less rapidly during hot and dry weather. Rootstock might influence this choice. A 30cm pot is on the small side, but fruit can certainly be grown successfully in small pots. They constrain the roots and therefore help to control the vigour. It rather depends on what you are hoping to achieve with it. In 'The Orchard House', written by Thomas Rivers - probably the most well regarded nurseryman of the 19 century - he advocates growing all manner of fruit trees in pots, and although it is an old book, there is still useful information in it and I always enjoy reading the old gardening manuals. It helps that many of them have been digitised and are freely available online, too :) I just looked up the sizes suggested: 18 inch for large trees, 13 and 15 for moderate sized, and 11 inch for compact bushes. I recalled that gardeners of that era did grow much in quite small pots and this allowed them to move plants about. Leaving them outside, for example, during winter so that they could benefit from proper winter chill and bringing them in during the spring to protect the blossom or force them into production earlier than they would otherwise. They were grown without the benefit of some of the modern dwarfing stocks, and the pots undoubtedly help to keep them under control. Whatever size you choose, you will need to refresh the compost from time to time. I would perhaps consider removing the tree every two or three years, shaking off much of the compost and giving the roots a modest prune, then replanting in good fresh soil with plenty of organic matter. In those years where they are not repotted, I would scrape away the top couple of inches of soil and replace with a good rich mix, probably including some manure and a sprinkling of fish, blood, and bone. You can also mulch the surface - not a bad idea, for contributing some goodness to the soil as well as helping to retain moisture - but it is best to keep any mulch at least a couple of inches clear of the trunk.
@@jonnyskitchengarden hi my plum is called Patio plum Little Vic gets to about 4ft rootstock is VVA1 very dwarfing if that helps all growth seems to be on 1 side on a few branches i would like it to bush out a bit more i did hand pollinate it as flower came early
That's odd. VVA1 (Krymsk 1) is usually described as semi-dwarfing and should, as far as I understand it, be just a bit smaller than Pixy - I would have said it could be as much as 8 feet so I am quite surprised. I did look up "Little Vic" and sure enough the description said 4 feet but it seems strange... I would think you could move up a pot size next time you repot it, but it sounds as though it could be a good candidate for a small pot. Rebalancing a tree can be a bit tricky - the temptation is always to cut back the overgrown side, but such pruning often encourages vigorous regrowth.
Unfortunately, I do not currently have a plum tree like that where I could do a video. Happy to look at a photo and make some suggestions if it would help (jonnyskitchengarden@gmail.com).
I enjoyed listening to your reasoning for making the cuts; orcharding is an art as well as craft. What to cut away is easy, but where to do it so that the tree grows where you want it is more thoughtful. Very well done and explained. Thank you!
Thanks 🙂
This was really informative. I have three fruit trees (two apple and one plum) that I am trying to 'tame', and I think I am now going to be a little 'braver' in how I approach them! My thanks.
You can be quite bold with pruning and training - unless you go mad, it’s hard to do any permanent harm 😀
K, Spratt
Thank you for all your videos this year all very interesting plus information on when and how to sow/plant / prune thanks for your time 👍👍👍👍
Thank you :)
Hello. This was such a informative video. Thank you. I have wanted to find out the rules for correct spur pruning and you have answered that nicely. I have three year old espalier apple and pear trees in my garden and I have pruned them partially incorrectly until now. Seven trees in New Zealand thank you. Lol. Also I think you have a wonderful David Attenborough tone about you. Excellent.
Thank you so much for your comment. For spur pruning I have two other videos you might like to see as they provide more detail on summer pruning (ua-cam.com/video/VpKHRcNasS0/v-deo.html) and winter pruning (ua-cam.com/video/ugWwH01qqoI/v-deo.html) - these are specifically about cordon/espalier apples and pears so exactly what you would need, I think. Best of luck with your trees :)
Inspirational!
Thank you! :)
very useful.
thank you for this ...what is the best size pot to grow a plum tree in iv got it in a 30cm pot at the moment with fruit on its been in that for for 2 yrs, all so it needs pruning when is it best time to do that thanks
I think ideally you would want to finish any pruning of stone fruits - peaches, plums, cherries, etc. this month. Depending on the condition of the tree, I would be tempted to leave it now and make any formative cuts after bud break in the spring.
Pot size is an interesting question, because there is no easy answer. I would tend to pick a larger pot to give the roots plenty of space; they also dry out a little less rapidly during hot and dry weather. Rootstock might influence this choice. A 30cm pot is on the small side, but fruit can certainly be grown successfully in small pots. They constrain the roots and therefore help to control the vigour. It rather depends on what you are hoping to achieve with it. In 'The Orchard House', written by Thomas Rivers - probably the most well regarded nurseryman of the 19 century - he advocates growing all manner of fruit trees in pots, and although it is an old book, there is still useful information in it and I always enjoy reading the old gardening manuals. It helps that many of them have been digitised and are freely available online, too :)
I just looked up the sizes suggested: 18 inch for large trees, 13 and 15 for moderate sized, and 11 inch for compact bushes. I recalled that gardeners of that era did grow much in quite small pots and this allowed them to move plants about. Leaving them outside, for example, during winter so that they could benefit from proper winter chill and bringing them in during the spring to protect the blossom or force them into production earlier than they would otherwise. They were grown without the benefit of some of the modern dwarfing stocks, and the pots undoubtedly help to keep them under control. Whatever size you choose, you will need to refresh the compost from time to time. I would perhaps consider removing the tree every two or three years, shaking off much of the compost and giving the roots a modest prune, then replanting in good fresh soil with plenty of organic matter. In those years where they are not repotted, I would scrape away the top couple of inches of soil and replace with a good rich mix, probably including some manure and a sprinkling of fish, blood, and bone. You can also mulch the surface - not a bad idea, for contributing some goodness to the soil as well as helping to retain moisture - but it is best to keep any mulch at least a couple of inches clear of the trunk.
@@jonnyskitchengarden hi my plum is called Patio plum Little Vic gets to about 4ft rootstock is VVA1 very dwarfing if that helps all growth seems to be on 1 side on a few branches i would like it to bush out a bit more i did hand pollinate it as flower came early
That's odd. VVA1 (Krymsk 1) is usually described as semi-dwarfing and should, as far as I understand it, be just a bit smaller than Pixy - I would have said it could be as much as 8 feet so I am quite surprised. I did look up "Little Vic" and sure enough the description said 4 feet but it seems strange... I would think you could move up a pot size next time you repot it, but it sounds as though it could be a good candidate for a small pot. Rebalancing a tree can be a bit tricky - the temptation is always to cut back the overgrown side, but such pruning often encourages vigorous regrowth.
iv not tryed to prune it so far but it badly needs it have got a video on pruning plums
Unfortunately, I do not currently have a plum tree like that where I could do a video. Happy to look at a photo and make some suggestions if it would help (jonnyskitchengarden@gmail.com).
Have no way of seeing what you are talking about