Hello everyone, im new to the website and am really excited to get to speak with other people who share a passion for fruit tree growing and enjoying the fruits of their labor. I have recently had the pleasure of marrying an amazing woman who’s mom gave her 2 plum trees when she bought the house 6 years ago. We have no idea what type of plum trees these are or how to go about pruning them. Last year the bigger of the two produced only about 10 plums total, this year however there appears to be close to 100 or more. I tied some of the stressed branches up, but any advise would be greatly appreciated as i am brand new to all things fruit tree related 
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Were they tied up,because a lot of fruit were bending them down?
It is kind of difficult to see,but are those two trees together,in the photo?bb
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Yes i tied them up because the fruit is starting to bend the branches down pretty bad. And it is one tree. I tried to add a few other photos but im so new that i could only post one. I can try and add another one here
Okay,it’s a little late but a lot of that fruit can be pulled off,to lessen the chances of branches breaking and for bigger and sweeter ones.
I space Plums about 3-4 inches apart,with keeping the most,closest to the trunk.Whole branch ends can be removed,to make it simpler.
Here’s a video about it.bb
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Awesome thanks. Maybe then i could take off the rope. I am a little worried about it rubbing over time and creating a place for disease to get in
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Oh yeah,that one branch,shooting straight up can be lopped off,at about the same height as the rest of the tree.Looks to be mostly vegetative growth.Not a biggy,compared to the abundant fruit set.bb
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Even this time of year? I didn’t know if it was anything like apples where you want to do your trimming in late winter/early spring.
It bothers me that your tree doesn’t have a trunk or so much growth coming out of the trunk covering it 
. But I won’t say anything since I’m no expert on pruning. Maybe somebody else can comment on it.
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@susa I couldn’t agree more. I made some detrimental rookie mistakes hacking up apple trees at the wrong time of year in my past. I learned my lesson, and now make sure i know what im doing and have a game plan together before i do anything. My goal is to have these two trees perfectly manicured and growing in the right direction in the next 3 years.
Summer is the safest time to prune. Pruning has changed a lot in the last few years. We know more now. Watch the video Brady posted. Watch other Dave Wilson Nursery videos. Lot’s of the new methods are discussed there. Such as summer pruning reduces vigor. Well less vigor than dormant pruning. If trees growing wild crazy, summer prune.
I do both Dormant for shaping, summer to control height. I don’t let any fruit tree get past 8 feet.
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Thanks drew, i subscribed to that youtube channel. I spent a couple nights looking thru all their content, really great stuff. With all your help we should be well on our way to having a couple good fruit trees in our front yard. One last thing, can you explain the significance of the white paint, and should i look into doing that for my plum trees?
Young trees can get sun scald and the white reduces heat. Also some protection from splitting by winter freeze-thaw cycle. I have really do not know if it’s needed or not? I painted mine when they were young, but not now.
Good luck!! Have fun! No worries about failures, one learns a lot from them.
Figured out the quotes 
I’ll give the white paint a try once i get the bottom of the trees all cleaned up. Im gunna ferterlize and spread out some mulch also which should help with the heat and water evaporization.
A quick update. I finally made it home and got to trimming and thinning. Here’s a few pictures of the progress so far. I still need to fertilize, mulch and install an automated watering system, but hopefully an improvement from where it was 3 weeks ago.
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