I just planted a bare root flavor grenade pluot that is about a 6 foot whip with one branch. It’s already started to lead out a little and showing signs of waking up. Is it to late to make a heading cut at 25-30” to force low scaffolding? Should I wait until winter to make the cut?
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Oh by all means give it a knee high cut. And take out one of the co-leaders.
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Interesting. Why not cut both of those leaders at knee height and let one of the leaders be a scaffold. Is it because of the poor angles it would have? Could you tie one down and end up with an acceptable angle?
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I was thinking of making these two cuts and get a wider angle to create a good scaffold on the right. My question is will it still push out new scaffolds if I make the cuts when it’s breaking dormancy since it’s late in the bare root season in my zone 10a. And why do Arborist recommend letting the tree develop as a central leader and discourage heading cuts at knee height?
I’m not sure? I certainly would not want a central leader on a pluot tree. Maybe they like using ladders? I don’t! Sometimes thick caliper trees respond poorly to head cuts but this tree looks thin. I would head cut both branches and if the thicker main branch develops good scaffolds I would remove the other branch. But I would wait to see proper scaffolds on the main branch before I remove the secondary. It might branch better, then make that secondary one the central branch.
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Go ahead and prune it. If you wait a year you will have let the tree waste resources on growth that is going to be removed when you make your cuts then. Right now the buds are using resources that they stored in their tissue last growing season for budbreak. What ever resources/energy that you remove by pruning now is tiny compared to what will be used when it actually starts growing more structure (wood, branches). After the tree leafs out, the roots will expand and start sending energy up to grow more branches. At the end of summer the cycle reverses and more energy goes down to the roots to prepare for next year’s growth.
Besides, removing that topmost bud will encourage a flush of growth from alot of the buds below it that would otherwise just sit there. The top most bud is greedy in a way. It sends down a hormonal signal to keep buds below it from taking too much of the energy that flows up the tree so that it gets more and can grow higher. Cutting that bud out causes all of the other buds to grow as much as possible until a new highest bud takes the other one’s role as the top bud.
Why do most places say to prune knee high in early winter as opposed to now? By making the cut now while the tree is blooming and leading out does it stunt its growth?
No, but it’s used a little energy pushing buds up there, so cutting earlier just avoids that. No biggie.
I agree that cutting it back with both leaders intact let’s you see which pushes better scaffolds. I don’t know how pluot push, but I have a European plum that never pushed the right scaffolds and I had to settle for an odd shape down low. That worked out fine, but more choices is better.
You can grow plums as a central leader. A lot of people, including myself prefer to grow them as a vase. It generally provides more sunlight to the fruit and easier to keep the tree open and lower.
Either way you will want to take out one of the co-leaders, as bleeder BD mentioned. The problem with leaving the one co-leader is that it is too big in reference to the leader. It won’t form a nice crotch angle, even if you tie it down, as Kevin was asking, plus the scaffold would tend to be overly vigorous
If you head the the tree now, you will have lots of buds which will throw out lots of potential scaffolds. You can select for scaffolds after a season’s growth.
A lot of growers prune after the season because there’s more time to do it, but you can prune now. Sometimes growers will wait a season before heading to allow the tree to put out lots of growth which forces the new shoots outward, forming lots of nice crotch angles from which to choose scaffolds.
Personally, I like to head at planting. I want all the energy directed at emerging shoots. I’ve not had a problem selecting nicely angled scaffolds (at the end of the season) doing it that way.
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Thanks for the information everyone. Is there any preference or difference on which leader I select to keep?
@Plum, If it were me I would leave the left side,(main) leader and cut right side off and head other at around knee height as mentioned above. Most arborists are not into growing fruit so take their advice on other trees. Nice looking barefoot plum!
Here’s what I did today. I headed it at about 36” and headed back the side branch to one outward facing bud.
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Also any tips on what to do with this flavor king? I was thinking of trimming back the scaffolding the left to a stub and taking the central leader down to just above the scaffold on the left.
I’d take the middle one out and leave the rest.Also,the left and right ones could be cut a little shorter,above the new growth and if the inner leaves on the right stub are aiming towards the center of the tree,they can be removed.
That thing really was cut back.bb
They aren’t talking about fruit trees and most arborists in the U.S. know very little about managing trees for fruit.
Pruning shortly after first growth is supposed to encourage a better reaction of new growth throughout the remaining tree instead of just stimulating the shoots immediately behind the cut, but I haven’t observed meaningful difference.
Pruning during dormancy is also supposed to be less dwarfing, but as long as trees haven’t fully leafed out, you won’t find much difference there either- buds are working with their own stored energy until fully leafed out…
With pomes you need to be more careful about the issue because they get their main surge of growth in spring but J. plums keep growing vigorously throughout the season.
I think you are well served with vigorous growers like J. plums to remove branches more than a third the diameter of the trunk at point of attachment, although on citation and other dwarfing rootstocks it probably isn’t a big issue. I grow almost all plums on myro.
I’d remove those branches from the pluot and work with new buds coming from the trunk.
Unlike Olpea, I always start with a central leader, but I grow my trees high to get them above the browse line and to keep at least 4’ of trunk branch free to use for a coon and squirrel baffle. A central leader also allows the use of branch spreaders. After 3 or 4 years for J. plums I often cut out the center to make the goblet shape Olpea favors. E. plums tend to function well as central leaders for longer.
In your zone you are likely growing only J. plums which, for all practical purposes, is what a pluot is. If I was the apricot father I’d be mighty suspicious of the milk man.
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Whew, I’m glad you posted this… I just chopped my persimmon whip in half and felt like I was killing it because it had already put out a half inch of growth.
Is your persimmon in a pot inside?
Correct. I’m pretty sure its too early to plant, or at least I was waiting on the last frost date since its already breaking dormancy.
But now that all the buds that were breaking are removed (they were at the top) i wonder if i can plant it now…
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This Flavor King is on citation rootstock. I trimmed off the left branch, but left the one on the right. I’m just concerned that it’s too late. I guess we’ll see if I get any new bud growth from the trunk that hasn’t already pushed out. I was hoping I might get new growth right below where I cut back the left branch.
I would have done it the other way suggested.
Now you have to watch for that long branch thinking it’s the leader, too. It’s a bit tricky. Hmm.