What Happens if a Plum Tree Is Pruned Too Much?

Plum Tree Pruning

• Plum trees require pruning at various points in their lives to maintain optimal health and fruit production. Initial pruning with young trees helps create an appropriate shape for the tree. This leads to a structural integrity that helps the tree support its own weight as it ages and encourages ideal fruit production. Subsequent pruning helps maintain the shape of the tree while removing old, weak or dead wood. Removing low-hanging limbs helps direct a plum tree’s energy toward growing fruit and foliage and also provides protection against diseases that may travel from the soil to these branches.

Fruit Production

• As with any type of fruit tree, overpruning a plum tree inhibits a specimen’s ability to produce fruit. When you overprune a tree, the tree puts substantial energy into regrowing all of the parts you cut off. Regrowth after a severe overpruning may require so much energy that a tree lacks the energy required to produce fruit at the same time. Furthermore, on plum trees, fruit grows from wood produced during the last growing season and spurs of old wood. If you remove last year’s growth and/or all old spurs during overpruning, a plum tree may produce a limited harvest.

Damage Susceptibility

• Overpruning trees leaves them susceptible to numerous types of damage. While young plum trees require severe prunings to establish the shape of the tree, older trees cannot withstand large cuts, such as the removal of an entire branch, without risking damage. Large cuts on established trees lead to increased risk from pests and diseases, as well as problems like sun, wind and cold damage. Removing too much foliage reduces a plant’s ability to produce its own food.

Winter Pruning

• Any pruning of a plum tree during winter months constitutes too much pruning. Never prune a plum tree during October, November, December or January. Optimally, also avoid pruning in early February and September as well. Pruning plum trees during these months increases the risk of sliver leaf disease, caused by the pathogen Chondrostereum purpureum. The fungal disease can prevent the regrowth of cut regions on hardwood trees. If you prune a plum tree and it contracts this disease during the winter, pruned regions may never regrow.