When pruning fruit trees, it is imperative to have some tips and knowledge to ensure they are pruned correctly and thrive into the future. By ensuring you know each tree and the pruning method, your fruit trees will repay you will plenty of fruit. Here's how and when to prune fruit trees, such as apples and pears, apricots and peaches, damsons and plums, citrus and cherry.
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Apples and pears
Apple and pear trees can be pruned during the dormant season any time from November to March using sharp and clean tools - personally though, I prefer to leave it until spring just because I feel like the trees are less prone to winter damage that way. When pruning it is a good idea to stand back from the tree and look at the shape. This will help you to see how to best achieve that 'goblet' shape, which allows for good airflow and makes harvesting easier later in the season. When pruning you should am to:
- Remove crossing branches and inward-growing shoots;
- Cut back the previous year’s growth to approximately one-third;
- Cut above a bud when pruning and make sure it is facing towards the way you would like it to grow.
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Apricots and peaches
Apricots and other stone fruit trees should be pruned during early spring before growth starts. Pruning too soon during the winter can increase the chances of diseases such as silver leaf and bacterial canker. Prune young trees after the first bud bursts in early spring. Established trees can be pruned in the summertime.
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Damsons and plums
Pruning should be carried out in early spring or mid-summer and as with apricots and peaches, avoid pruning from autumn throughout winter. These don’t require pruning as specifically as apple and pear trees, but early training and removing old wood will help to ensure they produce lots of fruit.
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Citrus
If you are growing citrus fruits, you may be pleased to know they don’t need much pruning but tidying them up during February is a good idea. Thin out branches as needed, and if your citrus tree has got out of shape or is too leggy, you can prune it back by about two-thirds. If you find some growth growing much too quickly, nip off the tips and any fast-growing shoots as needed. Also, remove shoots that appear from the bottom of the stem beneath a graft as soon as they appear.
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Cherry
Cherries are pruned from late July into August, but some light pruning can be undertaken in spring. Cherries can be vigorous, so pruning is necessary and will help to ensure your tree has a good balance of the older wood, which will fruit and younger, replacement branches, for future fruit.
There are many more fruit trees that can be grown and many styles of pruning, from espalier to fan or cordon, so this is just a general guide to get you started.
We stock a wide range of high-quality pruning tools, like pruning shears, secateurs, loppers, gloves, and more. If you want to plant a fruit tree, this is the best time! We currently have a range of bare-root fruit trees available for online order (3 for €55 or €19.99 each) as well as a range of potted trees that are available for collection in one of our stores. Should you need any further advice on fruit trees, then please contact us and one of our qualified staff members will be happy to help.
Photo by Stephanie Albert from Pixabay
