Can branch growth be encouraged on an old plum?

General Fruit Growing
1

Hi all,

I have a pretty old plum tree that was let go for decades. It is probably 30 feet tall. It has very few lower branches, someone pruned it like a shade tree and raised the umbrella. I had one branch grow pretty low last year and have been protecting it but is there a way to encourage it to branch lower?

I didn’t have this problem with the overgrown apple trees. They had been let go for decades too but they didn’t have any problem growing lower branches and I’ve been able to take the tops off over the last 6 years.

Thanks,

Bob

2

Orin Martin is one of my favorite garden mentors online. He has a lot of great videos on that channel, as well as a couple books he has written. This video is specifically for the renovation pruning of plum trees. A good watch!