[sheeponthebrain]

We have a very old plum tree,, which was damaged in storm arwen. Its 100 year old + and is basically shaped like a Y. The two main limbs of the Y have snapped off. Should I leave well alone or should I trim them in the hope a new shoot grows?

[arobwk]

A pic would be very useful [member=155759]sheeponthebrain[/member] but normally best to tidy-up any breaks and/or splits (i.e. wounds) to produce clean pruning-type cuts to minimise chances of infection.   

Every chance it will produce new upper shoots I would say, but watch out for a flush of suckers from the root stock which, of course, should be removed.

(Here's a contrary tale though:  a clients plum finally died after 2-3 years of die-back.  There were suckers aplenty which I repeatedly cut back apart from just 2, just in case they were coming from a buried bit of the variety rather than the rootstock - nothing to lose and I had in mind that some folk bury a variety/rootstock grafted union below ground !  Really not sure what they were/are;  probably rootstock shoots actually, BUT they still produced some really nice-tasting plums last year !!)

[Fleecewife]

Arobwk has said most of it.  Yes, pollard it for now but be aware that opening up plum trees in winter exposes them to silver leaf disease.  There's not much you can do about it though as the damage has already happened.


What do you think about using wound paint to seal the damage [member=152775]arobwk[/member]?


What a shame to lose such a venerable tree.

[arobwk]

Well [member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] that's a "very good question" (whether to dress a pruning wound or not)!
To be honest, I really don't know, BUT I have been going with the modern thinking to leave a pruning-cut to heal naturally (the majority of my pruning being at traditional/well-tried/recommended times of the year).  This being a plum (stone-fruit) though with major winter damage I would offer some other thoughts below

I would personally go for a light-touch "sealing" (right or wrong):  that would be an immediate wash of an organic anti-viral/anti-fungal solution based on readily available household products (or a wash of diluted "Citrox") to provide a temporary barrier to infection while the tree gets it's own act together. 

[sheeponthebrain]

Will give it a tidy up tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed  there's basically only 6ft of stump left, but here's hoping

[chrismahon]

We're in a similar position [member=155759]sheeponthebrain[/member] , although we do have some little branches left on the plum tree. We cut it back last year and the stumps with no branches on died back to the main trunk. Other branches have twisted and split with the weight of the plums, so the whole lot has been cut back hard.


Looking for a replacement in Spring- a Rienne-Claude Doreé (Golden). They taste delicious, if you can find one in the UK.