Flowering plum - suggestions

[Matt S]

This Prunus was dug up by the side of the road by a friend of mine about 12 months ago. It's a red leafed variety with pink flowers that you often see in the Adelaide hills. He sold it to me and it's been left to grow untouched over the summer. Now the leaves are off and it's time to make some decisions!

What do people think? I have a front in mind but I'm open to suggestions. What about the deadwood? Keep and carve or remove and let heal over? Any suggestions are welcome!

Proposed front, rear, left and right..

plum front.jpg

plumb back.jpg

plum left.jpg

plumb right.jpg

Nebari..

plumb nebari.jpg

Morning cuppa for scale. It's a heavy brute in the current pot.

plumb scale.jpg

Matt

[CraigM]

Nice base, agree with your chosen front. Would carve deadwood, have a look at the post 'Some caving this week - Flowering peach'.

[Daluke]

Nice material.

I like the smaller trunk - I'd be getting rid of the tall trunk then carving a stub.

Either way - it looks like you have some good choices

[Grainer]

a suggestion..but will take time..

[Matt S]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

After reading your comments I looked closer at the option of removing and/or carving the tallest truck and I now agree that this could be the way to go. Grainer - I like your virt but that would take longer than I am patient for! Great picture though, and shows the process nicely.

Here's the type of image I'm now thinking of. I'm a few weeks away from breaking out the grinder so feel free to comment!

plum front virt.jpg

Matt.

[Watto]

Matt - firstly I just love a plum!
I agree with removing the larger of the trunks and keeping and carving the smaller one. I think getting rid of the larger trunk altogether is the option I would choose and instead of having it as shown in your vert, carve a uro. Uro is a fairly normal part of plum growth pattern and would mask the big cut.

[Matt S]

I finally got an afternoon to myself (first one since July? ) so I finally got a chance to try out the Die Grinder while there were no kiddies around. There's been a fair bit of growth since July...

plum progression 1.jpg

Then I sawed off most of the branch to be carved..

plum progression 2.jpg

Then I started carving. Unfortunately I ran out of time so all that was did was remove the bark in the areas I wanted and reduce the bulk a little. Next step will be to put some movement into it, but to be honest I'm thinking of removing most of it and maybe even making a uro as per Watto's suggestion.

plum progression 3.jpg

Hopefully I won't have to wait another 5 months.

Matt.

[Watto]

Good start. Go the uro!

[Matt S]

Today I had a chance to have a good look at this plum and I'm pleased with the way the branches have thickened, much quicker than I expected. The summer growth stretched to over 2 meters tall so it's a happy tree.

Watto will be pleased as I took his advice and created a Uro. It's pretty rough at the moment but refinement will come later. I'll be cutting some of the branches back hard - any advice on timing? Late winter?

plum july 2017 1.jpg

plum july 2017 2.jpg

plum july 2017 3.jpg

plum july 2017 4.jpg

Matt.

[Watto]

Its time to act, if you let those extended branches get any thicker you will struggle to use them effectively. I trim my plums in winter, before bud burst so I can set direction for the new season growth. Its starting to look the goods.

[Keep Calm and Ramify]

Matt,
I like your progression with the uro - I would be tempted to do more damage.
Maybe bigger scar taking more wood out to extend down to ground level?
Something like my blurry picture below

DSCF2480.JPG

[Matt S]

Thanks Watto, I'll start pruning in the next week or two.

KCAR - Thanks for the photo. That's the sort of thing I'd like to do but for now I'll let the tree settle down and then see where the live bark starts and finishes.

Matt.

[Matt S]

Last weekend the kids were gone for an afternoon so it was time to make some noise with the Die Grinder. As a few people here have suggested it was time to extend the uro in all directions and the power tools made short work of it. I'll need to finesse the rough carving at a later date and I think I'll replant the tree into a smaller pot as it's time to slow down the growth a bit and start pruning the summer growth. The branches were nearly 2m tall before I cut them bake prior to carving. These plums grow fast!

plum Aug 2018 a.JPG

plum Aug 2018 b.JPG

Matt.

[robb63]

I really like this post.
Loads of different angles of the tree shown throughout the progression
Thanks Matt
Rob

[Max]

Hi Rob, Max here, i was wondering what/where your heading? I'm confused !!