Re-plumbing a plum tree

Brian and I were lucky enough to come out fairly unscathed from Tropical Storm Isaias. Unlike Sandy eight years ago, it didn't take out our power, and we'd had the foresight to stash our recycling bins and patio furniture in the shed, so we didn't lose any of those. However, there was one casualty. As we watched the storm from our kitchen window, we could see our plum trees swaying in the wind, and we realized that one of them, the Mount Royal, was actually listing to one side. By the time the storm was over, it looked like this.

It hadn't actually been uprooted, but it was completely blocking the sidewalk, and we obviously couldn't just leave it there. But at the same time, we didn't want to lose the whole tree when it was still more or less undamaged.

Brian went out and tried pulling on it from the house side, and even with his full weight on it, it wouldn't budge. But we thought there was a chance we could right it if we could sort of put it in traction: apply a continuous pull on it from the house side with a band around it attached to a stake. We could push it from the other side at the same time, and once it was upright, the stake would help keep it that way.

So Brian started hunting for tools to do this job with. And lo and behold, he found a cargo strap he'd once received for Christmas, with a ratchet attached to it for tightening it. We'd never used it for its intended purpose, but it looked like just the thing for the present task. He also found a two-by-four that he was able to cut to a point on one end with his miter saw (another Christmas gift, received from his dad) and pound into the ground with a sledgehammer (also a gift, this one from our late friend Tim). So, in a way, all of them were helping us get this job done.

Before attempting to hoist the tree, Brian thought we'd better lop off that one big low-lying limb that was blocking the sidewalk. This would reduce both the overall weight of the tree and the distribution of that weight toward the sidewalk side, making it easier to push in the other direction. But I was hesitant about removing such a big limb all at once, so I persuaded him to try just cutting off the three longest branches extending from it. If that wasn't enough, we could always take off the whole limb later.

So he got out his trusty pruning saw (yet another gift, this one from his brother) and started sawing away at the branches. And even without removing the whole limb, this took off quite a lot of mass, as you can see from the pile of branches we were left with.

Then he put the belt around the tree on one side and the stake on the other and started tightening it with the ratchet, while I pushed on the tree from the street side. As it grew tighter, it looked at one point like it might slip upward off the stake, so he got out the saw again and cut a notch in it to hold the belt securely in place.

Eventually, with a combination of pushing and ratcheting, we were able to get the tree to a nearly upright position. With the belt holding it in place, it didn't look like it was in any immediate danger of going over again, but it was still a plum out of plumb. We didn't feel entirely confident that it would remain upright if another strong storm hit.

Brian had sent an email about this to his brother, who has some training in tree health, and he sent a response saying he thought that entire large limb was going to have to come off. His view was that the top of the tree was too heavy for the roots, and it was going to need some "tough love" to cut it down to a size its root system could support.

So, a couple of days later, we were back out there with the saw, slicing off the tree limb piece by piece. We trimmed off all the remaining branches, then cut off the main limb itself in two big chunks. While we were at it, we took off all the other branches below the level of the belt, since we knew some of them were going to have to come off anyway (one of them was sticking out far enough to obstruct the driveway). By the time we were done, we had an even more significant pile of branches...

...and a rather denuded-looking tree, which we were able to ratchet up another couple of notches, to the point that it was approximately vertical.

So far, the tree is showing no ill effects from its surgery. However, what we have now clearly isn't a permanent solution. Brian is convinced that even with its lower branches shorn off, this tree can't be trusted to remain upright in any kind of heavy wind and rain; because of the way it's boxed into a corner of the yard, its root system simply can't stretch out far enough to support it. So we'll probably end up having to secure it with a more permanent anchor-and-cable system, which in turn will make it pretty much impossible (as opposed to merely inconvenient) to mow the grass in that part of the front yard.

So, one lasting effect of this storm will be forcing us to make up our minds and select a ground cover for the front yard, or at least part of it. We already have some barren strawberry plants in our back yard, and we could try to take cuttings from those and get it established in the front. They don't actually grow densely enough to block out all weeds, but pulling a few weeds from between the strawberry plants should be better than trying to cut down a whole forest of them with the weed whacker without tripping over the tree cables.

Another possible silver lining: trimming off those lower branches means fewer routes for squirrels to get up the tree, which could make it easier for us to protect the plums from squirrels by applying Tree Tanglefoot to collars around selected branches. We could even try applying it to the cables themselves, which would pose no risk of harming the tree. If these changes allow us to get more plums off this tree in future than we did this summer (though perhaps not quite as many as we had last year), it could be a blessing in disguise.