[percy thrower's cat]

hi,
i'm not sure which variety i have, the fruit is golden, but i didn't prune it last year for various reasons. is there any way that i can prune the tree before late summer? obviously i'm concerned about silver leaf but the tree is a a bit messy and you know how heavy plums can get on an overburden tree!
alos is it true that plums have good and bad years in turn?
thanks

[mumofstig]

Some plums are known to have a very heavy harvest one year, which leaves them a bit weak so they do not fruit the next year. If you prune some of the baby fruit off in a good year then it should be ok the next as well.

Perhaps you could just reduce the fruit load this year, so it doesn't get damaged, until you can prune at the right time 

[plum crumble]

just planted, amongst other things, a plum tree sourced from Suttons. Their firm advice is to prune every year up to 50% of the immature fruits.

[mumofstig]

See...I'm not just making it up as I go, really I'm not 

[plum crumble]

 

[Trillium]

That's the problem with plums and peaches - if left to their own devices, they overbear one year and haven't energy enough for the next so they appear to be biennial, which they really aren't, they're just too exhausted. So as per advice suggested, reduce the crop to almost half every year and the tree can produce every year. And yes, now is a good time to do some branch pruning, particularly crossing ones, dead or diseased ones and ones at awkward angles. 

[percy thrower's cat]

i'll sharpen my shears, thanks people.