How to Prune Fruit Trees

Twentieth Edition

Georgia Sales

• Publisher: Echo Point Books & Media
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781648371103
• Topic: Biowissenschaften
• Subtopic: Gartenbau

Make the right cut every time and maximize your fruit production—covers over forty varieties of trees from apples to almonds and plums to pomegranates. Note: If you would like to see the Echo Point paperback version of How to Prune Fruit Trees, please search ISBN 1626549540. While the act of pruning is simple enough, knowing where and when to prune can confound even experienced gardeners. For more than half a century, Robert Sanford Martin's How to Prune Fruit Trees has been the go-to guide for pruners of all levels of expertise. As one reviewer noted, "This book simplifies what other books complicate. It has a small amount of text paired with line drawings that help break pruning tasks down into something you can easily understand." Martin has judiciously pruned his words to make his advice as clear and simple as possible. His guidance in the art of cutting back and thinning out has been responsible for the preservation of countless healthy trees and orchards. In this enhanced edition, additional information from H. H. Thomas's Pruning Made Easy explores the treatment of roots, side shoots, sub-laterals, standards, cordon trees, and other aspects of plant care. Well illustrated and clear, this book is an indispensable guide for year-round pruning success for both seasoned and amateur gardeners.

EXCERPTS FROM H. H. THOMAS’S
PRUNING MADE EASY

Edited by Christine Schultz

A GENERAL SURVEY

Knowledge of pruning is essential for the successful cultivation of fruit trees. Understanding the most effective methods is crucial, but luckily, they are easy to learn. To optimize the output of an orchard or garden, the grower must consider the characteristics of different tree varieties, in addition to those of the individual tree. Fruit trees tend to be pruned too severely, and they would bear heavier crops if they were pruned less. Another common fault occurs when one plants too many fruit trees in a limited area. After few years, they will take up more room than the planter had anticipated, and each year they will become increasingly crowded. Having bought the trees and tended them for a number of years, the planter is disinclined to do away with any of them, and the only other way of making room for them is to cut back the branches hard. This results in a luxuriant growth of leaves and branches at the cost of the fruit.

Fruit trees must have ample room for proper development. The branches must be fully exposed to air and light, otherwise a successful harvest is impossible. Also, soil type and positioning are important things to consider in the pruning process.

WHY FRUIT TREES FAIL

If planted in rich soil, young fruit trees will grow vigorously, but they will not bear fruit for a number of years. Further, the more their branches are pruned, the more freely they will grow. As a result, planters often renounce fruit cultivation owing to their disappointment year after year of scanty crops. Although fruit trees need deeply cultivated soil, they should not be heavily manured; old mortar or lime rubble is excellent material to mix with the soil for all fruit trees, and especially for stone fruits (e.g. Cherry and Plum).

A MATTER OF IMPORTANCE

It is also important to keep the uppermost roots within three or four inches of the surface of the soil when planting. Deep planting is not conducive to fertility. As a result, planters can avoid severe pruning, which rarely pays in fruit cultivation, by better preparing the ground and giving the trees sufficient room for their development. The first instruction, therefore, in pruning trees is a negative one—prune them as little as possible. In fact, you should prune your trees just enough to keep them within the allotted space and prevent overcrowding of the shoots and branches. More abundant crops will be the reward.

PRUNING NEWLY PLANTED FRUIT TREES

A newly planted tree is one that has been put in the ground between October and March, and its pruning is attended to in the spring months after planting. Thus it may have been in the ground for six months or only for one month. In dealing with the pruning of such trees, two methods are in general practice, and planters must decide which one to follow.

One method advises planters to prune the trees in the first spring; the other approach is to postpone pruning until a year later. The latter recommendation, however, has been shown to be less effective, and the beginner may be advised to disregard it and to prune his trees during the spring months (March or early April) following planting.

It is a safe rule to severely prune newly planted fruit trees. Unless the branches are cut back fairly hard, they are unlikely to start into growth except at the top, and the lower parts may remain bare, thus giving rise to an ill-balanced and unshapely tree.

You may now wonder: By how much should the trees be shortened? Which branches should be cut? Let us first address the last question. It is important that the amateur realizes that he must only cut the branches that grew during the past summer. He must not, except in special circumstances, interfere with older branches. They should be shortened to anywhere from one half to one third in size. In other words, they should be left half as long or two thirds as long as they were. If the branches are weak, cut them back so that only one third remains. If they are moderately vigorous, let them be shortened by one half. If they are really strong and thick, and the trees were planted in autumn, they may need to be shortened by only one third. It is, however, safer to prune severely.

If the trees have been in the ground only a month or two, the branches should not to be left more than half as long as they were. Trees planted late in the spring are slow in starting into growth, and their progress the first season may be poor. It certainly will be a poor harvest if they are pruned lightly, but if pruned severely, the chances are that the buds toward the base will be forced into growth and will produce good branches.

During the first few years, the goal is to build up a shapely tree furnished with the requisite number of branches. If the foundation is well laid, fruit production will follow as a matter of course. If, however, the tree is pruned lightly in its first year, the chances of the tree having a satisfactory life are jeopardized. Thin, weakly branches cannot bear a heavy crop of fruit.

Therefore at this first pruning, do not trouble over crop output just yet. Prune hard for the purpose of securing good strong branches to provide a firm foundation on which the tree can be built upon. In later years, the pruning can be modified according to the needs of the grower, the kind of tree, and the variety of fruit.

Thin, weakly shoots should be cut right out for they will block up the center of the tree and crowd the main branches. If there are side shoots on the lower parts of the branches that have been shortened, they should be pruned within two buds of the main branches. Those who advocate deferring the pruning of newly planted fruit trees until twelve months or more after planting argue that by that time, young trees will have become established and will respond better to severe pruning. Unless care is taken to keep the roots moist in dry weather, this method may be particularly advisable for fruit trees grown on poor land where growth is slow. However, generally it is better to prune in March or April immediately following planting.

PRUNING STANDARD FRUIT TREES

Apple, Pear, Plum, Cherry, and Damson are the fruits commonly grown as standards. Though the ways of pruning established trees differ to some extent, standards may conveniently be considered together since their general treatment is similar. The initial pruning of newly planted standards is important, for it exercises a considerable influence on the form and solidity of the tree. The foundation of the branches must be firmly laid; unless the limbs are strong, the tree will scarcely be able to bear the weight of a heavy crop, which results in disfigured and broken limbs. Therefore, the pruning of the newly planted standard must be severe.

All thin and weakly shoots should be cut right out, and the main branches shortened to within about eighteen inches of the base of the past summer’s growth. Then the buds will start growing strongly, and the tree will have a firm foundation of branches. For the first few years, it will be necessary to regulate the development of the branches by shortening the leading shoots (those at the ends of the branches) by about half in the winter. This is achieved by cutting out all weak growths and shortening the side shoots on the main branches in the summer and winter (see Martin’s chapter on pruning Apple trees). In later years when the trees are of a fair size and well established, the chief aim is to keep the main branches well apart and to cut right out any weakly or otherwise useless shoots; if left, they will cause overcrowding and will effectually put an end to fruitfulness.

Thinning out—not cutting back—is the most important detail in the pruning of standard fruit trees. If the branches are about eighteen inches apart from each other, fruit buds will develop naturally along them in due course, and there will be little cutting back to be done either in the summer or winter. It will, of course, be necessary to look over the trees both in July and in January for the purpose of shortening the side shoots, but if the above directions are observed this work will not be arduous.

The failure of standard trees is generally due to overcrowding. Unless the branches have the full benefit of sunlight and air, the fruit buds will not develop, the trees will continue to grow freely, and ultimately they will be crowded with thin, useless shoots that are unable to bear fruit and prevent stronger branches from doing so.

Planters often ask what can be done with standard trees that have reached this state. They are full of weak, spindling shoots that never bear fruit, and they have been so neglected that they have developed into a thicket of growth. The first thing is to cut the inside shoots right out. Then the number of branches must be limited—as previously stated they should be about eighteen inches apart. Old and worn-out fruit spurs should be shortened, or cut out if they are crowded, and side shoots that have been allowed to grow unchecked should be cut back to within two or three buds of the main branches on which they developed.

PRUNING CORDON TREES

The fruits most commonly grown in the form of cordons are Apples and Pears. The Plum is occasionally grown in this form, but it is not very satisfactory, and amateurs who wish to grow Plums are advised to purchase pyramid or standard trees. A cordon tree is one that is restricted to one stem, or two or three stems; it has no branches other than the annually shortened side shoots, which eventually become “spurs,” on which blossom buds and fruits are borne. It is obvious that trees of this kind must be pruned severely, otherwise they soon branch out, lose their characteristic shape, and cease to be cordons.

So far as their actual pruning is concerned, there is little to be said beyond that it must proceed on the conventional lines, referred to in preceding section dealing with Pruning Standard Fruit Trees. The leading shoot, that which extends the stem, should be allowed to develop naturally in the summer, but in the winter, it is shortened by one half or one third, according to whether it is rather weakly or vigorous. In July or August, the side shoots are shortened to within about six buds of the base of the current summer’s growth (not counting the small leaves at the bottom), and in the winter, they are further cut back within two buds or so.

This is certainly rule-of-thumb pruning, but it is the only thing one can do if the shape of the tree is to be preserved. It does not suit all varieties of course, and when choosing Apple trees to be grown as cordons, it is wise to avoid those of vigorous or otherwise unsuitable growth, such as Newton Wonder, Bramley’s Seedling, Lane’s Prince Albert, and Norfolk Beauty. Over the course of years, the original stem may become weakly, and as a result, the spurs will lose vigor and will not blossom satisfactorily. This matter can be remedied by training another stem to take the place of the original one, so that you can eventually cut out the latter altogether. The process is a gradual one, and takes several years to accomplish.

When this course is deemed necessary, a promising shoot as low down in the tree as possible should be taken care of and allowed to grow unchecked during the summer months. At the winter pruning, it is cut back to within fifteen inches of the base. Every year it should be allowed to progress to that extent; thus in the course of three years, it will be nearly four feet high. Then the work of getting rid of the old stem may begin. This should gradually be shortened as the new stem makes progress, until over the course of time it is cut away altogether and the new stem takes its place. By adopting this method, cordon Apple trees can be kept in a healthy and fruitful state for an indefinite period.

PRUNING TRAINED FRUIT TREES

Trained fruit trees are those grown against a wall or on a special support in the open garden. They are of various shapes, chief of which include single, double-stemmed, treble-stemmed, and gridiron or four-stemmed cordons, along with fan-shaped and horizontal cordons. Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot are commonly grown only as fan-shaped trees, but Apple, Pear, Plum, and Cherry are grown in both forms, though the latter is generally trained as a fan-shaped tree.

When the trees are young, it is necessary to prune and train them carefully to obtain tiers of branches at a uniform distance from each other on the horizontal espaliers and to preserve the fan shape of the tree. Amateurs would do well to obtain trees three or four years old and not to attempt to train them from “maidens”.

In pruning horizontal espaliers, the side shoots must be “stopped” or cut off at about the sixth leaf in the summer and shortened again in the winter, and the shoots at the ends of the branches—the leading shoots, as they are called—are shortened by about half in the winter.

In the following spring, care must be taken to select a shoot that can be trained as nearly as possible in a straight line with the older part of each branch, so that the latter continues to grow in exactly the same direction. Disbudding, or the removal of superfluous shoots, is an important part of the work of pruning trained fruit trees because it saves much cutting of the branches later on and helps prevent unnecessary branch pruning. Side shoots must, however, be pruned in the summer and winter in order to preserve the symmetry of the tree.

PRUNE TOP OF TREE FIRST

In the summer, it is wise to prune the upper part of the tree before the lower part and to restrict the sub-lateral, or secondary shoots, to one leaf because the tendency of the tree is to grow more strongly at the top than at the bottom. By allowing the shoots on the lower branches more freedom, a more uniform growth will be obtained.

It is difficult to keep fan-shaped Peach and Nectarine trees in good condition unless great care is taken to preserve young shoots as near the base as possible. This will allow them to be tied in to replace the older branches when, after the fruits have been gathered, these are cut out. In fact, it is not an easy matter to keep trained fruit trees of any kind in a healthy and fruitful condition unless they are given frequent attention and skilled care. The trees soon become ill-balanced unless the vigorous shoots are restricted and the weaker ones encouraged by allowing them more freedom of growth.

Above all, it is essential to prevent the vigorous growth of th...