Pruning Fruit Trees: How to Prune a Fruit Tree

Fruit trees are either grown for aesthetic appeal or for the goodness of the fruit, though the latter is the case most of the time. Trees and plants, in time and just like pets, become part and parcel of our lives and lifestyle. This aspect of gardening makes pruning imperative, since smaller incisions are less 'painful' than defacing larger branches later. Pruning fruit trees involves the removal of dead and diseased stem. This stimulates growth and the health of fruit buds. The process is ideally planned and can be addressed either by physically pinching off soft tissue or using a designed implement. Pruning increases productivity and life of the plant or tree and prevents future damage to the tree and others in the vicinity in event of a storm or due to fruit load.

How to Prune a Fruit Tree

Prior to pruning a fruit tree, it is very essential to get educated on the process and your role in it. Plants and trees generate new growth in around the meristem, the area of cell division around root and shoot tips. Ensuring that this region is elevated to sunlight also results in the roots penetrating deeper into the soil. Pruning helps remove the apical tip for the dormant lateral buds to produce new shoots. It is actually a manipulation of the plant's natural response to apical dominance. Pruning also helps you to define the shape and size of the fruit tree. The activity removes unproductive foliage and reduces the risk of damage by pests and diseases.

Fruit trees should be pruned during the dormant months of chill and frost, between November and March. The younger the plant the better. By pruning a plant with no side shoots, it is possible to narrow down to a bud. The process, in the case of a tree with numerous side branches, benefits from shortened length and exposure of upward facing buds. The shoots being targeted should be removed along with the flush. As fruit trees grow older, by the second year, you need to target lower shoots, to expose outward facing buds. The ones facing inwards should be snapped clear. If the process is religiously followed in the first two years, it gets easier later on and ushers in quicker fruiting and flowering.

Before pruning a fruit tree, it is very important to know the spur bearing from the tip bearing varieties. The terms relate to the region around which the fruit is borne. While in the former, the fruit appears on older wood, in the latter, the fruit is seen on the tips of shoots. In the case of spur pruning, you need to target growth that hampers older laterals. The development of stronger laterals or branches is the aim of spur pruning. In order to ensure that the fruit tree and the surrounding environment is healthy, you need to ensure that the center is airy, by removing diseased/dead wood and preventing overcrowding of branches.

In the case of pruning tip bearers, you need to develop a regulatory system to keep a check on maiden shoots that are not more than 25 cm. It is very essential for them to thrive and the process of pruning should be directed towards stimulating the growth of their fruit buds at the tips. The pruning of these fruit trees aims at encouraging the shoot lengths to be reduced and prevent overcrowding of branch leaders. Pruning is an artificial stimulant to derive the necessary shape, yield and growth from the fruit tree. It pays to maintain a chart and make physical entries every time a fruit tree is pruned. It is very important to remember that pruning is an annual affair and preferably in winter. In the case where physically pinching the shoot off is not possible, there are a number of special garden tools and implements available to address the need.