Question for stone fruit folks

General Fruit Growing
#1

I don’t do much by way of stone fruit and frankly I’m afraid of killing 'em, given my experience with apricots. But a friend asked me a question and I want to try to answer it. Keep in mind that they’re not in my arid, Montana climate but back east. Here’s the question:

“If I want to ‘late train’ a new fruit tree - but am afraid of cutting it now because of disease . . . would it work to make the cuts and then put glue on the cut branches - or wrap the cuts in parafilm? Would that take care of the disease problem?
I bought a pluot and didn’t make the cut to train it to open center when I bought it. It’s still very young - one year? Can I prune it now instead of waiting for dead of winter?”

My own inclination is to just put it off until next year or at least until dormancy, but I just don’t know. I’m wary of wrapping the cuts or putting glue on them, too. So advice is welcome.

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#2

I generally prefer to prune while the tree is actively growing and there isn’t any rain. This limits the opportunity for disease (like canker) to infect exposed tissue.

The other rule of thumb for me is spring prune to stimulate growth and summer prune to control shape. However, vigorous growth never seems to be a problem on stone fruit. Spring pruning just gives me more water sprouts, but it is much easier to see what I am doing without all of those leaves in the way…

If you want to seal the cuts, pruning sealer is readily available. I use it frequently.

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