[smiley bucket]

Bl**dy nag jumped out last night and ate two of my plum trees, now left with just the main trunk on one and the other with a few chewed stumpy branches.  Anything I can do to help them recover or will I just have to wait and see how they are next spring.  They are just baby trees, and were only planted this year.
Anybody want an 'orse, its a really good jumper 

[Rosemary]

 

[Big Light]

I skim read and was disturbed "ate two of my plums, now left with just the main trunkstumpy branch.  Anything I can do to help them recover"
 

[Lesley Silvester]

My goats ate a plum tree that was very young and not even planted.  I decided to give it a try and it did pick up and now produces well.

[Mammyshaz]

I cannot kill the plum / gage trees. They drop fruit & grow new plants. Unless found and dug out completely, they just keep growing back. Even after the mower chops them.

In one place we cut down a young tree yearly  and the blighter kept shooting back up. It was in the  overgrown area so was getting a good grip again before being tackled. Finally dug almost to Aussie to remove all roots this year although the top area was only a small branching plant.  hopefully we got it all out.

They seem pretty hardy here ( our lot certainly are    )

[plumseverywhere]

We have sheep in our plum orchard, little toads headbutt the trunks to shake the fruit out. They also massacre the saplings.
I worry about the withered plummy stuff though - isn't it meant to be toxic? then again, we still have sheep...

[Lesley Silvester]

We have sheep in our plum orchard, little toads headbutt the trunks to shake the fruit out. They also massacre the saplings.
I worry about the withered plummy stuff though - isn't it meant to be toxic? then again, we still have sheep...

More like in-toxic-ating.  When the sheep start staggering and singing rude songs very loudly, you need to move them somewhere to sleep it off.

[plumseverywhere]

   that's made me laugh!! yes, we are a bit famous for intoxicating plum stuff here!!

[Lesley Silvester]

  that's made me laugh!! yes, we are a bit famous for intoxicating plum stuff here!!

So I'd heard.   

[HesterF]

If they're one year olds, you could well prune them back to one stem and they'll still come back (certainly you'd prune them back to a few stumpy branches anyway). The only danger is that you wouldn't normally prune a plum at this time of year because of the risk of bacterial infections (e.g. silverleaf) so I think that's more likely to kill it than the chewing itself.

H

[denmylne]

i have seen this phenomena of self seeding plums, older varieties, eg the wild types of small round black plums, eg bullace, damsons, greengage etc, but marjory seedlings and victoria dont seem to be a problem. in the ancient orchards, this is a real problem as after "cleaning and clearing" these small saplings are a veritable death trap,  sharp sticks, sticking out of the ground!!. It may be an old trait which is still present in some varieties

as a last resort to damaged trees, try cutting the sapling back to just below the damage. and re graft another scion.

their is dispute about grafting on an existing graft, the ancient texts i have say it actually improves the fruit, but some of the more knowlegdable nursery men(and women) i know, say it doesnt make any difference

ie, a conference graft on a rootstock of quince, PC etc, if you graft another conference scion onto the existing conference grafted scion, it wont make a difference to the fruit. this may not be true of older varieties of apples and pears. i plan to verify this next year with some experimentation with the one year maidens i have(150) so i will let you know how this pans out

consider growing your trees, with the graft as close to the ground as possible and nurture a small branch from below the graft and also from just above the graft. in fact multiple branches on a fruit tree preserve the root bowl and are a better shape for fruit trees. that way if the tree sustains damage, you can quickly graft new scions onto these small stubby branches. unless you plan a commercial orchard, this is a superior way to shape trees. and dont be frightened of vigorous full standard trees. once established you can have live stock in the same field.

scions grafted onto large existing root bowls do a lot better than newly planted saplings

some of the root bowls in newburgh , fife go back at least untill 1500, probably older.
the rootbowl is the most important part of any fruit tree
anyone looking for pear trees

pm me

denmylne
fife

[goosepimple]

I skim read and was disturbed "ate two of my plums, now left with just the main trunkstumpy branch.  Anything I can do to help them recover"
 

I read it correctly but after poor Plumseverywhere's recent unfortunate experience, I had visions of a horse eating her, I'm going mental, when is christmas over, sorry Plums.

[plumseverywhere]

I skim read and was disturbed "ate two of my plums, now left with just the main trunkstumpy branch.  Anything I can do to help them recover"
 

I read it correctly but after poor Plumseverywhere's recent unfortunate experience, I had visions of a horse eating her, I'm going mental, when is christmas over, sorry Plums.

which experience? I'm confused  too much weird stuff happens in my life to remember!

[goosepimple]

Sorry Plums, haven't been on here since yesterday evening - I meant your poor wether and the dogs bit, not the picking up (or not) bit.  Oh dear Plums, I'm getting stressed for you and going a bit mental, sorry. 

[plumseverywhere]

oh!    got you now!! lol. 'plums trees eaten by horse...'  haha! love it. Its Christmas mania - us parents don't know if we are coming or going by the 20th dec lol!