Help help help

Hey guys.
I'm a complete novice and aquired, what I now know to be, a plum tree on my allotment. Flowered beautifully very early on and now I have lots of small, ripening plums. Being a novice I didn't realise I should have thinned them out so that I'd be left with larger plums, and to take the weight off the branches. Coupled with some terrible winds this year the branches are completely droopy. The tree doesn't appear to have been well staked in the first place. I'm using a frame for support at the moment, and have also tied the trunk up to a small wooden step I had at the allotment. Is there anything I can do to save this, maybe after harvest?? and get the branches growing upwards and stronger?? Not sure when/if i should prune. Any help would be welcomed!!

 

We have a nice Victoria plum tree. It produces massive amounts of fruit but also has it's occasional rest year with not much production.
This year it is very heavy with fruit. There is an old saying- 'stone fruits hate the knife'
However I did prune mine quite hard last year because it had got so congested with branches.
I believe you'll need to prune it soon, straight after you've harvested your plums.
That should give the tree time to heal it's wounds before damp autumn weather.
If the dreaded silver leaf fungus did happen to strike your tree, it would mean bye bye tree.
Your tree looks young, so after pruning it should produce stronger upright growth.
Some silver colour on plum leaves is just a sign of lack of water, so it can be confused.
We had that in May, so I put the hose pipe to it's roots and it's bonny now.
I hope you enjoy your fruit, personally plum crumble is a favourite of mine with ice cream, yummy!

 

Hello Emily, it's a common problem with plums (and pears). You've done the right thing propping up the branches. I believe folk used to use long, sturdy branches forked at the top as 'crutches' until the plums were harvested. The other method of support is a really long pole inserted near the trunk of the tree with a 'maypole' of strong strings or wires holding the heavy branches, but not very practical to accomplish! Once they're picked, as said above, you can prune quite hard during dry summer weather.

 

I prune part of our Victoria each year, as above after fruiting. I find that if I prune hard, this year, next year the tree will spend lots of its energy producing branches. You may find it will produce well on last years branches.

 

Jymi..I'd hate to have to lose the tree. Advice on board about pruning in the dry weather. I'll make sure to do it when (if) we have a spell of sunny weather forecast.
Shiney..I'll be lucky if mine get past the allotment gates but a plum crumble sounds fab. I picked a few yesterday, they're so tasty.
Noisette..Thanks for that. I may well have to work out the logistics of some kind of pole and wiring. Also thanks for the advice on pruning. I'm being a wimp with regards to this, but I think you're right and I'll take the plunge after harvesting.
Hans..Thank you...you've definitely given me a bit more faith to go ahead and prune. Lets hope I don't halt next years lovely plums!