Fruits and Nuts: Advice on Plums-, 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Farmerdill,

Thank you for all the hyperlinks on this!

Please feel free to offer "unasked for advice". Even though this is not MY problem, I am learning from all this. I will run some of this by my neighbor, and if he still has no intent on doing anything, I will not waste my printer ink. Too bad he does not have a computer so I could just forward all this to him.

If this was MY tree, I would just cut down the thing and be done! There is a dwarf Peach tree right next to the PLum tree. I'll ask him if this also has any priblems.

Question:
Our street is lined with Kwanzan Cherry trees. They are all now over 30 years old. Many are in different stages of decline, while some others are healthy and robust.
The ones in front od my home--all the main trunks/branches are totally hollow and serve as safe nesting places for birds and their broods. They have been using these hollow holes for this for years. Kind of like a bird Condo. Used to be only one Sparrow that "ranted" a certain hole. This year, a starling has also set up housekeeping.

What causes all the stems to become hollow? The tree seems to be OK in spite of it and blooms beautifully every Spring.

Thanks again, Gita