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sandy31 starts with ... Need some advise on my Unhealthy looking Plum tree. I Have a double graft Plum ( satsuma and santa Rosa) and i planted it last year ( sept 2013) and i am raising it as an Espalier. But things ( espalier) is not looking good due to one Graft is too strong and other is Sick ( not sure what happened) looks like leaf curl. What i am thinking, is instead of raining it as espalier raise it as normal plum tree with 2 grafts. For that i am thinking of cutting off everything above knee height and restart again from the beginning and make my structure of open Vase shape. Will that be ok if i cut it at Knee height now ? I hope i will not kill the tree or reduce Fruit production in coming years? Please advise Thanks for all help and support
| About the Author sandy31 Quakers Hill 17th July 2014 9:49am #UserID: 8012 Posts: 34 View All sandy31's Edible Fruit Trees |
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BenW says... Hi Sandy To me, two close together, upright branches like that isn't a great start to an open vase. But I have already ranted about this on the forum :) To me, the usual style commercial double budded at the same height trees with upright inflexible branches are really only suitable for espalier. Others might disagree. You might have 2 problems you can fix though. Plums don't get leaf curl, so far as I'm aware, but they do get black aphid, which causes similar leaf symptoms. You can see them underneath in the curled up leaf if you look carefully. That or it's just trying to go dormant... Also, a horizontal espalier like that isn't usually recommended for plums. It might be happier if you train it as an informal fan, which is really easy to do and there are plenty of resources on the web. Good luck :) | About the Author BenW Kinglake West,3757,VIC 19th July 2014 7:09pm #UserID: 5390 Posts: 144 View All BenW's Edible Fruit Trees |
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Don C says... My experience from growing a Santa Rosa plum in a horizontal espalier like that, is that it can be done, but the tree doesn't really want to be that horizontal. When we had enough chill there were plenty of fruit. I've moved now and will be going for a fan this time. One thing to consider is that Santa Rosa wants to get big and tall. Mine grew very vigorously, if I was lazy and left it very rapidly put out vertical growth. Going for a fan espalier may be helpful to encourage you to keep the vigorous growth in check if space is important. I've gone for dwarf plums this time because they should be easier to manage and protect from the birds. | About the Author Don C Karangi 22nd July 2014 9:39am #UserID: 9420 Posts: 22 View All Don C's Edible Fruit Trees |
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