Step by step fruit tree pruning guide


1. It is best use sharp shears or saws so


your cuts are clean. Use pruning shears on young trees and limbs less than 1/2- inch diameter and lopping shears for your bigger cuts. Use a pruning saw for larger branches. 2. Begin by removing dead wood and


broken branches. Then cut out any wood that crosses or rubs against any other branches. This opens up the middle so the sun can get to all the fruit. Cut back branches that extend too far in one direc- tion. 3. Make your cut close to a bud, to a


joint in the branch, or to the trunk; never leave a stub. The pruning cut should be just above a bud. Make the cut at a back- wards angle of about 30 degrees. 4. Do not remove healthy dwarf spur


shoots unless you want more space for your fruit to develop or you want less fruit. 5. Prune stems just above a pair of


opposing strong shoots or buds. If shoots or buds are staggered, choose a strong one and prune just above it. 6. Keep more horizontal branches, and


prune more vertical branches. 7. Remove suckers (shoots) from


around the base of the tree. 8. Get rid of all waste twigs and


branches which can harbour pests and diseases. 9. Aim to keep the maximum height of


your tree between 10 and 12 feet. 10. For more fruit tree pruning ideas


and instructions, contact me for details. Mike Allen is a consulting urban forester


and certified I.S.A. arborist. He is the owner of Viburnum Tree Experts, a company that specializes in independent assessment and counseling related to problems of trees, woody shrubs and woodlots. He can be reached at 204-831-6503 or by e-mail at viburnum- trees@shaw.ca


22 • Early Spring 2014


Remove root sucker shoots growing near the base of the trunk. (See feature 5.)


Look for rubbing branches. (See


feature 3.) The weaker of the two branch- es should be removed. The contact area of the branches can be an entry point for decay or serious diseases. Always prune back the branch at the junction with another branch – ideally a larger one. If the under surface of the bark is exposed or rubbed bare by the crossing branch, cover that area with an approved tree pruning compound. There are wax and inert tar compounds that can be used. In full leaf you should be able to


see through the crown from different vantage points. Your apple tree may have too many branches through the crown, restricting proper ventilation and allowing insufficient sunlight to prop- erly grow the fruit. These branches are growing too close together. (See feature 4.) This part of your fruit tree will need to be thinned out. Proper ventilation reduces humid-


ity that can encourage the development of killing diseases such as fire blight, black rot and apple scab. Adequate light penetration allows pollinating insects to visit the flowers of each developing fruit. The inside lower core of your tree’s crown may only get less than forty per cent light penetration. Those pollinators may not get to those crowded develop- ing flowers. Think about the tree’s fruit produc-


tion. Did you have too many fruits that caused the branches to noticeably sag, or were there much fewer fruits than in past years? Our fruit trees bear fruits on very small stub-like branches called spurs that are usually less than an inch long. For apple production the spurs


must be at least one year old and grow- ing on a branch that is at least two years old in order for that spur to be poten- tially productive. Not all healthy spurs will necessarily produce viable fruit. The healthier the tree the more likely that most of the spurs will be productive. In the case of over production and sagging branches, removing spurs – especially apple spurs – will reduce the potential abundance of fruit and reduce branch sagging as the fruit matures. (You may not want to do this in a plum, apricot or edible cherry tree as these fruits are usually less abundant than apples and they have lesser weight.) If you have had a chronically low


apple fruit production you may not have a suitable cross-pollinating apple nearby. Ideally there should be at least two apple trees planted in your yard preferably of the same variety, although but that is not a strict necessity. Apple flowers can be pollinated by insects that have visited crabapple tree flowers. There is a catch here. The timing of potential pollina- tion maybe different between the two trees involved with the pollination. The window of effective pollination can be too short in certain situations so if plant- ing two apple trees be sure to check that they bloom around the same time. It is important to remember that


branches should be pruned at a junction point with either a larger branch or the main stem or trunk, or at the base of the stem as will be the case for woody shrubs. Never prune in the middle of a branch. The middle of branch locations in fruit trees can be sites of disease infec- tions. There is no mechanism in the tree that can quickly seal over cuts made in these locations especially in spring and summer. q


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A community class learns the finer points of fruit tree pruning.


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