Pruning can feel so intimidating. After all, you’re chopping off branches from your fruit trees. What if you do it wrong? Will the tree be ruined forever?
While pruning fruit trees can feel intimidating, it’s incredibly simple once you know what to expect.
Apples, pears, persimmons, plums, quince, and other fruit trees require pruning to grow and produce their best. Let’s talk about why that is and how to do it.
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Why Do I Need to Prune My Trees?
Everyone wonders this at some point – whether you’re just too busy to get to pruning or terrified of making that first cut. Why do we prune fruit trees? Is it truly necessary to prune fruit trees?
Pruning fruit trees helps them in a lot of ways. It can regulate growth, increase fruit yields, maintain the health of your plant, and increase the size and flavor of fruit.
An unpruned tree often puts more energy into growing tall and wide rather than producing large, delicious fruits. You also want fruit trees that aren’t too tall to harvest from.
Judicious pruning can refocus the tree’s energy on producing large and abundant fruits.
Pruned trees are healthier and more productive than wild trees. When you prune, you give your fruit trees the guidance they need to do their best in your orchard.
You do this by opening up the tree so sunlight reaches all of the branches, improving production. Opening the canopy also improves air circulation, which reduces the incidence of pests and diseases.
On top of that, some species only produce on new wood, so pruning generates lots of new growth and so lots of fruit.
Fruit Tree Forms
When you’re just starting with pruning fruit trees, you may want to chose a common form to base your tree design off of.
Each form can be very healthy and productive for your tree, but depending on how your tree is growing naturally, some forms may be easier to achieve than others.
There are additional shapes beyond these, but these are the most common.
Central Leader Form
This is a pyramidal form, with a central leader from which all the other primary branches grow. While this can let the tree grow a little too tall for some growers, it does produce a robust and productive tree.
This form is especially good for pear, apple, pecan, and persimmon trees.
Open Center Form
This form doesn’t have a central leader, so lots of air and sunlight can pour down into the heart of the tree. But without a central leader, the branches have less support; they’re not as sturdy.
Open form trees tend to stay a manageable size. This is a great form for cherry, fig, olive, and plum trees.
Modified Central Leader Form
This form combines the central leader and open center form. The branches do come out of a central leader, but the top of the leader is removed to allow for more openness. This form is both sturdy and easy to harvest. It tends to work well with all fruit types.
When To Start Pruning Fruit Trees
The best time for pruning fruit trees is during the dormant season, either in the late fall, winter, or early spring. If you prune in winter, it should be during a time when the weather isn’t consistently below freezing.
For that reason, early spring is the best pruning season for most fruit trees. Get it done before active growth begins in the spring. There shouldn’t be any large or opening flower or leaf buds.
For us, that’s usually when we will stop collecting maple sap. When we bring in the buckets, we head out to the orchard to prune the fruit trees.
Pruning fruit trees in early spring will put the least amount of pressure on your trees, and they’ll be able to jump into the growing season easily.
The only two exceptions to the early spring prune are cherry and plum trees.
Because sweet cherries are prone to so many diseases – especially fungal diseases – prune them in the midst of the growing season, when the weather is warmer and drier. The same applies to plums.
Plums are extremely susceptible to a disease called silver leaf, which is caused by the fungus Chondrostereum purpureum. This disease thrives in cool, wet weather like you find in spring or fall. So prune plums in the winter or summer when it’s dry.
The 3 “Ds” of Pruning
When you’re pruning fruit trees, focus on the 3 “Ds” that should always be cut away during a pruning session. Look out for diseased, damaged, or dead branches. You can also add a fourth “D”: deformed or distorted.
You don’t want to leave any of these “D” branches on your tree.
Diseased branches can spread disease to the entire tree – sometimes even to the whole orchard. Cut diseased branches away and either burn them or throw them in the trash. Don’t leave diseased branches in the yard.
Feel free to remove diseased branches anytime of year.
Damaged branches can sometimes be saved, but only if the damage is small and localized. Take a look at the whole branch and see if part of it can be saved. Usually, though, the whole branch has to go.
Dead branches should also be cut away. They’re not doing anything for your tree, and they’re simply cluttering up the plant. Dead branches may also become homes for pests or spread disease to the healthy tree. So, cut the dead branches away.
Of course, you won’t always limit your pruning to the three “Ds,” but knowing them will help you focus on the most important areas to prune.
Consider this pruning your foundation.
When it comes to removing deformed branches, this simply means branch that is touching another branch, that is bent or weirdly shaped, or that has unusual growth that might hint at an underlying disease.
Structural Pruning
Now is the time to do the pruning that will open up the canopy and encourage healthy growth.
Once you’ve removed the obvious “D” problems, it’s time to step back and look at the whole tree. This will help you make some decisions.
When you talk to experienced pruners, they’ll give you a few tips to look out for. First, take a look at how the branches are growing. If any branches are growing across other branches and rubbing the bark off their cross branches, trim one of those cross branches away.
When branches grow too closely like that, they can actually rub off the bark and expose the interior wood to disease and pests. Remove one of the rubbing branches to keep that from happening.
Similarly, look for any branch pairs that emerge from a tight crotch. This means both branches emerge from the same place and form a tight “V.” These are weak points and might break and open the tree up to disease. Remove one of the branches at the base.
Next, look at the shape of the tree. Does it have a central leader (one main stem) or an open, vase-like shape? It might be hard to tell if your tree is overgrown. You want to help maintain that shape or bring it back, if it’s become scraggly.
Remove any stick-straight stems in the canopy. These are known as water shoots, and they aren’t as productive or sturdy as traditional stems.
Then, examine the canopy. Can the sunlight reach deep into the canopy? Prune away any branches that block light and air from reaching into the canopy. Fruit trees, espeically benefit from the light and airflow that comes from an open profile.
Prioritize horizontal branches over vertically growing branches. Horizontal branches tend to be stronger and better able to bear the weight of a heavy fruit load. Prune away some of the vertical branches to help the horizontal ones grow stronger and larger without competition. You can even train some branches to grow more horizontally.
Then, add shape to create a strong central leader or open vase shape.
Pruning fruit trees is all about maintaining the shape you want and improving fruiting.
There are two types of cuts you can use to achieve this process. The heading cut is when you cut the end of a branch behind a leaf node to encourage branching. Use this to encourage new growth and fuller growth.
Thinning cuts are the ones you use to remove an entire branch back to the next branch, stem, or trunk.
Think of heading cuts and the one you use to make the area thicker and thinning cuts as a way to make the area thinner.
Fertilizing to Support Pruning
When pruning fruit trees, you change the balance between the roots and branches. It’s important to be aware of that changing balance, and on the stress that even a skillful pruning puts on the tree.
Whenever you prune heavily, remember that heavy fertilizing after heavy pruning increases tree growth and reduces fruiting. If you have to give your trees a severe pruning, mulch a little with well-rotted compost, but then just let the tree rest for a year. Don’t feed it.
Don’t expect too much from your fruit trees the season after severe pruning. While it’s necessary to set your tree up for future success, it can shock it at first.
But, if you’re just pruning a few dead or damaged branches, don’t worry about giving your tree a regular fertilizing treatment in the spring. Use a good fruit tree fertilizer.
Once you start regularly pruning your fruit trees, they won’t need severe prunings every year. Each spring’s pruning will be a simple, quick, and gentle process, that can be followed quickly by a dose of fertilizer, and then a great fruiting season.
How to Prune
Make sure your shears are sharp and clean before pruning. Dirty shears are more likely to spread diseases. Dull shears will damage the wood around the cut because it is being crushed as well as cut. A sharp, clean pair of shears will cut quickly and cleanly.
Before you switch from one tree to another, swish your shears into isopropyl alcohol for about 30 seconds to kill any virus or bacteria that may have been present in the previous tree. You can also thoroughly wipe your tools in a 10% bleach mixture.
This is essential if you’re pruning away diseased branches. It’s also a smart idea even if all your trees seem healthy. You never know if diseases are lurking unseen.
As soon as you’ve pruned, clean up the cut wood and move it away from the orchard. If you can, burn the wood to prevent any diseases from spreading.
Make sure you check twice and cut once. Don’t start cutting until you’re ready, and then cut quickly and confidently. That will help make your cuts clean and neat, which is healthier for the tree.
Remember that even if you are doing a severe prune of your fruit trees, don’t remove more than third of the total tree. If you need to remove more than a third of the tree, take your time and do it in two or three prunings over a few years.
Give your tree time to recover in between heavy prunings.
When removing branches, cut the branch off flush to the branch collar (where the branch attaches to the trunk. A cut like this will allow the tree to heal the wound. If you leave a branch stump, it will die and rot away on the tree.