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When to prune peach & plum trees in VA
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coolbrze
49 Posts
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1
January 27, 2020 - 3:53 am

I've got some newly planted peach & plum trees (last year) in my orchard & the research I've seen says prune the peaches in early Spring after the threat of real cold weather is gone. I'm in the mountains of VA - Zone 6b so I'm guessing March is the best time to prune the peaches? What about my plum trees?

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Viron
1409 Posts
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January 28, 2020 - 8:54 pm

In Oregon.. I’d begun following someone’s advice ‘here’ who’d suggested we wait until after peach trees bloom to prune them.  That was to avoid the near constant spring rains that spread a bacterium deadly to them in the PNW.           

There’s a Black Knot Fungus (over here) that can be death to both European plums and peach trees.  As I just searched it, I'll suggest you do the same. Part of it’s control is removing infected areas ‘during the winter.’ Confused  

I was involved with the removal of two cherry and one Euro plum tree/s a couple years ago due to a severe and neglected infection of Black Knot.  The trees were 20 years in, so be on the lookout ~

The concern over mid-winter pruning in a cold area (like ours) is dieback of stem buds after pruning.  Say you ‘aimed’ a bud downward, severe cold kills it back 3 or 4 buds, you’re left with dead tissue (disease repositories, maybe hundreds) - and buds aiming every direction…  If winter-kill occurs before pruning, as often happened to my fig limbs, latter Spring pruning allows you to simply cut back to healthy wood. March sounds safe Wink

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coolbrze
49 Posts
(Offline)
3
February 4, 2020 - 12:51 pm

Viron said
In Oregon.. I’d begun following someone’s advice ‘here’ who’d suggested we wait until after peach trees bloom to prune them.  That was to avoid the near constant spring rains that spread a bacterium deadly to them in the PNW.           

There’s a Black Knot Fungus (over here) that can be death to both European plums and peach trees.  As I just searched it, I'll suggest you do the same. Part of it’s control is removing infected areas ‘during the winter.’ Confused  

I was involved with the removal of two cherry and one Euro plum tree/s a couple years ago due to a severe and neglected infection of Black Knot.  The trees were 20 years in, so be on the lookout ~

The concern over mid-winter pruning in a cold area (like ours) is dieback of stem buds after pruning.  Say you ‘aimed’ a bud downward, severe cold kills it back 3 or 4 buds, you’re left with dead tissue (disease repositories, maybe hundreds) - and buds aiming every direction…  If winter-kill occurs before pruning, as often happened to my fig limbs, latter Spring pruning allows you to simply cut back to healthy wood. March sounds safe Wink  

Copy that, thanks Viron. As an arborist, I'm very familiar w/ Black Knot, we've removed many a Thundercloud (purple ornamental) Plum & Cherry trees that have been infected w/ it. Will plan on mid-late March for pruning them 🙂

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