Pruning a multi-stem purple leaf with bare middle

9 years ago

Hello everyone,

Our purple leaf plum needs to be pruned back as it has grown over the drive way and walk areas of our yard. However, I noticed this year that there was very little leaf growth on the inside of the tree... most of the leaves were growing on the newer outer parts of the branches - while the inner parts of the same branches were bare. It looked ok but I was concerned about this. I'm afraid if I do any significant pruning back as far as I want, I'll remove the areas that showed leave growth this year and be left with the parts of the branches that didn't produce leaves.

However, I'm hopeful if I do it, I'll stimulate growth in those areas that didn't have leaves this year.

Interested to hear everyone's opinion on this... and any ideas on why it had that leaf growth pattern this year (we had a drought 2 years ago... I suspected that might have been the cause but could be wrong).

Thanks!

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Comments (2)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
did you notice how extreme last winter was??? ... that is the most likely answer ... and it didnt help.. that it was probably still suffering from drought .. not to mention its planted next to a driveway.. and reflected winter sun and retained heat is not helpful ... lol.. you are lucky its alive .. lol

speaking of which.. its an extremely short lived plant ... 10 to 15 years max ... and i am thinking yours is around 10 years old??? .. they suffer from black knot and gummosis ... see link

its also planted a bit close to the house for its potential.. which is the basis of your complaint ... yes you could learn how to prune on it ... but???

would you consider removal and planting something better ...???

i suspect... it might start suckering wildly from the bottom as a reaction to its stresses... and that would be multiplied if you start cutting hard on it

what do you think??

ken

ps: if you are interested in learning pruning.. this would be a great plant to experiment on.. but keeping in the back of your mind... that it will.. most likely.. have to go ...so you cant really do wrong ...

Here is a link that might be useful: link
GrowerDon
9 years ago
Your Plum looks like Prunus Cistena - more of a shrub than a tree. My comments are going to be for Prunus cistena commonly sold as purple leaf plum.

Your comments about no inner foliage leads me to believe it is the shrub form - good news with this is that you can prune hard. I grew this form for years in the field and in containers. We would always prune regularly to force new clean growth and to stop the plant from stretching out quickly.

So, if this was in my landscape I would prune this back to about 3' and do so around the time when the flowers appear - I may even choose to allow the plant to flower and enjoy the show but before the leaves appear I would make my prune - my drastic prune.

Results will be a fuller growing shrub with great color. There is some risk the plant will not respond well but the risk in no action is greater.

Cut every branch and stem - be aggressive - prune without fear - many other professionals will not like this advice - but right now you have nothing to lose - make it a great plant or replace it with something of more value.

Be courageous in your action!
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