Lawrence County
Home and Garden
Pruning Fruit Trees
Fruit trees should be pruned every year to maintain their health, encourage
balanced growth and productivity and control their size and shape. When you
plant a fruit tree, you should be dedicated to giving the tree proper care and
pruning to maximize both fruit quality and quantity throughout the life of the
tree. Understanding the principles of pruning and practicing them are important.
Pruning is both an art and a science. Artists understand what they are
doing and scientists understand why. The objectives of tree pruning are:
- Develop strong tree structure. This should begin when trees are
planted and continue each year thereafter.
- Provide for light penetration. Good light quality throughout the tree
increases fruit bud development for following years and increases the quality of
the current crop.
- Control tree size. Most fruit trees require pruning to control
branch spread as well as tree height. This also serves to encourage new
growth that will result in new fruit bearing areas.
- Remove damaged wood. Some wood damage occurs almost every year from
such things as wind damage, fruit weight, winter injury and disease and insects.
Pruning is a dwarfing process and may result in a slight reduction in yield
compared to an unpruned tree, but the size, color and quality of remaining fruit
will be improved.
When to Prune
The best time to prune is during late winter or early spring just before the
beginning of active growth. If large blocks of trees are to be pruned, time it
so that you finish just before bud break. It will not harm trees if sap is
beginning to flow at the time you prune. The main reasons you should prune
during the late dormant period are:
- Wounds heal quickly when growth starts.
- Undesirable branches and other wood to be pruned can be easily seen since
there are no leaves on the tree.
- The bark is less likely to tear when cuts are made.
- Trees pruned in early winter may be damaged by low winter temperatures that
occur after pruning.
Summer pruning may also be used to control growth of young trees, improve
light quality in the fruiting zone, thin heavy fruit loads or remove water
sprouts and other undesirable wood.
Pruning Terms
 Bearing
tree – A fruit tree that has reached the stage of development to produce
fruit annually.
Branch – A shoot that has developed to maturity and has passed through
one or more dormant seasons (Figures 1B and 1C).
Bud – An undeveloped shoot or stem (Figure 1G).
Crotch, crotch angle – The angle between two branches near their point of
origin (Figure 1K).
Fruit spurs – Short, thick growth upon which flowers and fruit develop
(Figure 1F).
Heading back – Removing a portion of the terminal growth of a branch
(Figure 1J).
Leader – A branch selected as a continuation of the trunk and from which
scaffold branches develop (Figure 1D).
Scaffold branch – One of the lateral branches making up the basic
framework of a tree (Figure 1B).
Secondary branch – A branch which develops from a scaffold branch (Figure
1C).
Shoot – New growth developing during the current season (Figure 1E).
Sucker – A rapidly growing shoot arising from a root or a larger branch
(Figure 1I). A water sprout is a sucker growth that generally develops just
below a major pruning cut.
Thinning out – The removal of a branch at the point of attachment. This
may be removal of small wood (Figure 1H). or it may refer to a large branch or
branches.
Trunk – The main stem or body of the tree (Figure 1A).
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