back in the day.. the same thing happened to my 5/1 pear.. and 4/1 apple ...

eventually they got so ugly.. i got rid of them.. prepare yourself for that eventuality ...

never paint a tree... you will trap as much moisture IN and rot it .. as you may prevent bugs... though fruit peeps do weird things ....

cant tell from the pic.. but the remainder of the branch.. seems to be held up on a hope and a prayer ... i suspect.. the whole branch will break ...

judicious 'orchard pruning' .. which had NOTHING to do with a pretty backyard tree ... as well as crop reduction of young fruit.. might get you to extend the life of the tree .. but i am not qualified for that.. you might want to check in with the pro's in the fruit forum ....

ken

Thanks for the reply. Attached is an img of the entire tree. As you can see, there are plenty of other branches so I don't think it would die so long as the wound healed proper. It will definitely look off-balance, though.

What drives me nuts is that, as shaggy/crappy as it looks now, it looked -clean- in March. The amount of growth in just 3 months has been -astounding-. Either it needs the equivalent of a 'military haircut' every winter -or- the breed is just (like a factory chicken) just not suitable to hold its own weight.

wow.. a scale sure would of mattered.. on the first pic .... the wound is a huge ...

i would probably take out the damaged piece.. all the way down to the trunk ... below.. which would be a very tricky cut ... in the first pic.. its at 6 o'clock just above that small fruit ...

i mentioned proper pruning for the orchard.. we are not on the same page.. let alone the same book.. let alone the same continent... i HIGHLY recommend you take this to the fruit peeps in the fruit forum.. with both pix.. and link us over there ...

if you figure on giving it a military haircut.. may as well just get rid of it ... that is not how you produce a harvest .... and it will sucker like there is no tomorrow ....

its time to learn proper pruning....

ken

I was joking, Ken. Regardless, I did give it a pretty aggressive 'prune' (according to the local master gardener whatever that was worth) in January. So long as it won't -die- I'll wait on any big decisions until the winter. I just want it to be -safe- for now.

I'm not worried about losing fruit so much as the yearly cracking branches. In fact, I have way too -much- fruit for my needs. All the fruit is only adding to the weight problem.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think the 'breed' is almost designed to be problematic. It generates more fruit/weight than it can handle.

Do 'pros' use some sort of scaffolding? The documents I've read seem to be for full-size trees that are much bigger---and thus I think better able to handle the weight.

Thanks Again!

---JC

Yearly cracking or tearing of branches is due to excess weight caused by the amount of fruit - you need to thin this tree aggressively each season to reduce the amount of fruit production. Typically this is done when the fruits are 3/4 to an inch in size and thinned to a spacing of 4-6 inches.

And depending on type of fruit tree, how one prunes can affect fruit production as well. It may be worth it to take a fruit tree pruning class or otherwise brush up on your skills so that you are providing the best care for the tree and to minimize any additional damage.

Here is a link that might be useful: thinning fruit trees

Thanks. I pruned 'aggressively' last winter... I thought I followed the local master gardener's instructions. What I ended up with was
a) Even MORE fruit this year than last... but it's all on the lower branches... and thus so much weight.
b) And several new vertical (suckers?) branches at the top with no fruit.

So obviously I didn't do the right thing.

I'll read that document (thanks) and give it a think.

I really like this tree's look ...almost, if not more than the fruit. I hope I can save it... and get it looking cool again.

BTW: the fruit from this thing is -very- good. All 4 varieties are very different.

CHEERS

---JC

Thanks. I pruned 'aggressively' last winter

==>>> you had fruit in winter???

if you read carefully.. i think she was telling you you have to physically pick off half the fruit ..

do you want 100 tiny fruit.. or 25 premier fruit ...

and 25 wont collapse the tree ...

that is what she meant.. beyond wood pruning ...

ken

Wow. I wish I had read that 'thinning fruit trees' PDF 2 months ago. This is the first I had heard about thinning fruit. The person I got the pruning info from didn't mention that at all.

Well, I can remove some tiny fruit now and lighten it a bit. What I'll need help with after the season is pruning. Obviously what I did was incorrect.

Read from the link below:
Dormant Pruning vs. Summer Pruning

You certainly need to cut off that damaged limb and in addition reshape the entire tree.

Here is a link that might be useful: Training and Pruning Fruit Trees

Thanks (again). So much to study! :D

I thought I read in that other PDF that plums didn't bear multiple fruit from a single stem, but I could swear there are zillions of groups of 2 and 3 plums like that.

When I see groups of these, should I remove the 2nd or 3rd?

Also, do I really need to remove that -entire- cracked branch down to where the crack begins? That would effectively remove one whole side of the tree. IOW: other than 'ugliness' will it hurt the tree's -health-? There's a bunch of decent fruit on some branches coming off that one and I was hoping to leave it at least until 'harvest'. Is that OK?

This post was edited by suntower on Tue, Jul 2, 13 at 17:08