Before I start I have to admit I'm not a gardener and have very little experience so would really appreciate it if I could pick the brains of people who know better.
I have a small garden and a couple of years ago someone bought me a 'patio sized' plum tree.
It had a good crop of plums this year but they have almost all gradually died because the tree has some sort of canker, I think it is, affecting the trunk. The leaves are also curling and spotty and the tree just generally looks in very poor health.
The trunk is weeping a reddish/brown resin type stuff that sets into a very sticky gluey jelly stuff. I imagine it's sweet as the tree has been covered in wasps all summer.
I've look this up online but can't seem to find any advice other than someone saying with this type of thing to prune the tree under the affected area, which as it's affecting the bottom part of the trunk I can't do. I suspect that the trunk might have been damaged by a strimmer at some point as well so wonder if this is started the problem.
So my questions is can anyone help me and tell me what I can do to heal this poor tree?
I'm very wary of using sprays as a I have a small dog so I don't use things like insecticides on any of my plants so I'm really hoping for a solution to the problem that doesn't involve stuff that could harm my dog.