American Plums

[tynimiller]

Going to be incorporating American Plums onto the New Property, couple questions for those that have utilized them.

I plan on keeping them pruned significantly to encourage a bush style and send shoots around base which I've ready many have had success with.

However, those that have experience with them, did you have to fence them?

Did you prune them similar to apple trees as far as interior branches and such?

 

[Tree Spud]

I've never had any survive without caging them. Between browsing and rubbing, they get beat up pretty bad.

 

[DrDirtNap]

I have several American Plum and Chikasaw plum. Deer do like to browse and rub them. What I have found is they will generally leave them alone unless they are planted near or with another food source. I planted some in a native grass CRP field and the deer left them alone. They are doing great. I planted some others within a small clover foodplot and the deer destroyed those. Tree tubes are the answer. They provide good protection.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Deer never bother plums here, but that is probably deer density related and also the abundance of crops here. I have never even seen a rub on a plum. Native plums are thicket forming here, rarely over 8-10' tall and some so dense a person struggles to walk through them.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I planted 100 american plums bare root 2/14 and tubed them with 5 ' tubes

In an effort to improve " bushiness", I trimmed 1 ft off of the 5' tubes on 25 trees

Would have done better just giving deer gas powered hedge trimmers

They murdered every one!!

5ft is my general rule in east texas for tree tube height

bill

 

[tynimiller]

Thanks fellas, that is crazy TreeDaddy, you have high deer density or did they just love them?

Our state forestry program has a bundle of 100 for under $40 and at that rate I'm thinking even if I can't protect them all and get say 1/2 or 1/3 survival rate be well worth the investment long term.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

It might not be a bad idea to cage a few if you can to give them a head start, but I've never done that. I have quite a few deer by my house and the deer browse my plums but they keep growing. The browsing also helps them grow a little bushier but there's no question it will slow down the growth. Eventually they will send up suckers around the mother tree, so you'll have a shrub thicket if all goes as planned.

I have quite a few wild scattered American plums and they send up tons of suckers every year. The get browsed pretty hard as well, but keep coming back every year.

I've also had good luck finding some trees in the area that are dropping fruit in the fall and planting the whole plums a few days later. I'd just walk around and put them in random areas and throw a shovel full of dirt on top and then repeat about 500 times. I often mix the plums with some bur oak acorns and throw a couple of each in every hole.

 

[sandbur]

I would buy a roll of cement wire and make a group exclosure. Remove the fence when you have a good thicket formed.

Deer can get over the 5 foot fence, but I have had only one case in about 10 years. I also have some crab apples in the fence with the plums.

 

[tynimiller]

I would buy a roll of cement wire and make a group exclosure. Remove the fence when you have a good thicket formed.

Deer can get over the 5 foot fence, but I have had only one case in about 10 years. I also have some crab apples in the fence with the plums.

Yeah I've noticed if you keep the enclosure to a smaller area of like maybe 8 or 10 feet wide at most, they seem deterred to simply jump in an enclosure so small...still possible but definitely not as likely.