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Index : Citrus and Other Fruits
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- 30. Pruning Fruit Trees - Top
- To keep fruit trees healthy and productive it's necessary to prune them on a regular basis. Now, during the dormant season, is the time for pruning and training of deciduous fruit trees, such as apple, peach, pear, apricot and figs.
Pruning simply means the removal of wood, whereas training refers to pruning plants to a specified shape. Training is very important during the early life of a fruit tree. Pear and apple trees are generally trained to a modified central leader for a strong framework of branches. Peach, nectarine, and plum trees are best trained to an open center for a wide-spreading tree.
Pruning trees each year is necessary in order to maintain their shape and help regulate the size and quality of the crop. If trees are grafted, sprouts from the seedling rootstock should also be removed.
The initial training of fruit trees comes at the time of planting. Apple and pear trees, when purchased, are normally unbranched plants, called whips, about 4 feet tall. These should be cut back to about 3 feet. After the first year, retain only the dominant central shoot (young trunk) and three or four branches spirally arranged around the trunk. The lowest branches should not be lower than about 2 feet above the ground.
When planting peach trees, cut the tree back about knee high leaving several spirally arranged branches on the trunk. Reduce the length of these side branches to several buds. Remove all lower lateral branches flush with the trunk, and all suckers from the rootstock. The objective should be to develop three or four primary framework branches and an open center. Plum trees should be pruned much the same as peach trees, but they should have more usable branches and these should be pruned more lightly than the peach.
In young apple and pear trees, a central shoot (young trunk) is developed. This is accomplished by removing or spreading competing shoots, allowing only one vertical shoot to grow in the center. The central leader should be cut back each year at about 3 feet above the highest set of side branches. This is the central axis from which side limbs develop.
During the first dormant season after planting the peach, select three basic framework branches and cut them back about two-thirds of their length. Retain two strong lateral shoots at or near the point of each cut to further increase the basic framework from three to six branches. The next year, cut each of these six branches back to about two feet from the point of their connections to the original three branches. Again, make the cut near two strong laterals to increase the framework to 12 branches originating from one, two and three year old wood.
Plum trees tend to develop open centers naturally without the precise procedure outlined for peach trees. With both young and mature deciduous trees in general, remove branches that interfere with the basic framework. Remove branches that rub against each other. Also remove branches that have weak, narrow crotch angles. When branches are growing closely parallel, remove the weaker of the two, or the one less desirably located.
Mature apple and pear trees should not be pruned severely. Moderate annual pruning of a corrective nature is preferable to heavy pruning every three or four years. Heavy pruning upsets the balance of the tree, causing abnormal growth of shoots, also called water sprouts. Besides being weak, these sprouts are more prone to infection form fire blight bacterial disease.
Peach and plum trees should also be pruned yearly. Remove any crossing branches and those that are growing into the center. Then cut to outward-growing branches to check upward development. Do a fair amount of thinning out of crowded parts. During the growing season, rub off all water sprouts from the main branches within two feet from the trunk and all suckers from the rootstock. Most of the pruning should be done in February, but topping of vigorous shoots may be done in June.
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Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona 626-5161.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on January 31, 1999
- Updated: July 25, 2001
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