I had company over last weekend who decided to bring their children with them, normally this would not had been a problem except I was not expecting any children and had not made any provisions for them. While trying to handle things on the inside the children were allowed by the parents to go play in the back yard. This I had a problem with because I have a small pond and do not allow children in back yard unless supervised. Anyway, they tramped my flowerbeds, took what ever they could find and beat most of the leaves and flowers off my meyer before getting caught. But the worst of it was a plum tree that I planted last fall, they completely broke the trunk all the way to the rootstock. So I planted the trunk in a 5gal pot. Is it possible for it catch root? I’m hoping that IF at least the rootstock survive one day when I learn to graft I can reconnect the two together again. And by the way no one offered to replace the tree or apologize. I’m still hurting but trying not to be angry. Gina

Gina, the trunk will not root, but the root stock should send up a number of suckers. Select the strongest sucker to grown on, and keep cutting off all the other sucker growth. Only let one grow. I had pretty much the same thing happen to a cherry tree. The sucker I selected grew 5 feet in one summer. It is now a nice tree (4 years). BTW I would send them a bill for a new tree. Nice seeing you post again. - Millet

any plum scionwood from my trees is yours for the asking, as long as it is legal for you to import these into your state. I hope this helps.

All you need to order are hardier rootstocks if ever, and you can get them for about $3 per rootstock.

Welcome back Gina! I agree with Millet...send the parents a bill.
I had a party last summer & on invites I told people to PLEASE watch your small children if any. I too have a pond & kids always want to walk on the flat stones around it & they are not stable to walk on. I mentioned this & sure enough, 2 small kids were walking on them with Mother right there! They also try to catch the fish, & I saw one use a stick to poke at them & almost fell in. I was also busy with getting food out so i asked other guests to say something to the Mom. I would never let my son do those things.
Next time you invite these people, make it a point to leave children at home or lay some rules down. Those parents were very rude.
Maybe you should have mentioned for at least one parent to be out there watching them.
When I did art shows, I saw a lot of damage done by small kids because parents wern't watching them. I had eyes behind my head for this.

If you liked the cultivar of the plum you had, you could take a few scions off of it and when it is time to graft onto your suckers you can use it.

Valencia has a good point-- you can store the scion wood by cutting it into pieces, waxing the ends and putting them in a bag of moist sawdust then storing that in the refrigerator. That way it would keep until next fall or even spring when the new shoots would be hardend enough for grafting.

Millet, Joe, Patty, Valenciaguy & Skeeter

I truly appreciate your compassion and advise:

I feel better now, that the tree isn’t a complete loss. I can now channel a negative experience into something positive…..learning to graft J. I’m going outside today and gather the scionwood, sure glad I didn’t throw it away. Again, Thank you!! You guys are the best!!!!