If your trees are straight from the nursery, your first pruning will be a key element in deciding the future shape of your whole tree. I think one of the things that can make fruit tree pruning intimidating is the advice on how to prune, which always seems to come with a huge list of Dos and Don’ts that can leave the impression that pruning is the horticultural equivalent of defusing a bomb.īut it’s not – more like the horticultural equivalent of cutting hair – and once you understand why you prune and how trees respond, you can get out to your own fruit trees and start making informed decisions about how you want to work with your trees. The truth is, good pruning of a fruit tree isn’t particularly difficult if you understand why you are doing it. Keep the trees small enough to fit your space, and even to be able to harvest the fruit without a ladder.In cool-summer areas, fruit ripening is encouraged by thinning leaf-cover over fruit clusters. In hot summer areas, sunscald of fruit is minimized by allowing greater leaf-cover over fruit. Promote high fruit quality by reducing or promoting leaf cover over fruit, depending on climate.Increase fruit size and quality by thinning baby fruits so that fewer, larger, uncrowded fruit mature.Keep the tree small with vigor-reducing pruning in summer as required.Shape the tree with detail pruning during the dormant season (winter).Remove diseased wood and branches that invite wounds by rubbing against surfaces or each other.

Guide the tree on where to add new growth by pruning out branches that go the wrong way and cutting branches at points of outward-facing buds.Increase airflow and sunlight penetration into a tree for healthier trees less likely to be plagued by disease.I have put together a video of me teaching my sister and brother in law about fruit tree pruning that you will probably find quite useful.

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