Oops, I mistakenly planted a standard Santa Rosa Plum instead of the Semi Dwarf. How much bigger does the standard get over the semi dwarf? Is it possible to keep ttrimed down to 12'-15'? Thanks
Hello, a Standard plum can get 35 to 40 ft if left to grow naturaly .I have 2 standard apple and 1 standard plum(Santa Rosa) , the rest of my fruit trees are Semi-Dwarfs. You can keep your tree down to a manageable size by starting your scaffold branches low to the ground (18" to 24") I grow my plums on a modified cental leader instead of open center like I do my Peaches. My plum tree is only 5 ft now and has been in the ground a year. I will keep it under 7 ft tall by summer pruning in late August or September I go by ('Summer pruning' slows growth ----'winter pruning' accelerates growth).
Thanks, not sure what a modified cental leader is but I will look it up. So is summer pruning when the leaves fall or earlier than that?
I see that you are in S. Cal. your (S.R.) plum tree should ripen in late June to mid July in your area .I would summer prune no later than mid August . Here is a good site with lots of info for the home orchardist. the videos are very informative http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/homeindex1.html Cody
