I am often asked about pruning fruit trees, and from now to the end of February is the ideal time to prune.
Pruning fruit trees, if you are aiming to get a good crop, is a more specialised job than merely trimming it into shape. How you prune and what you prune does depend on the fruit, the variety, the rootstock, how you are training it and the age of the tree.
In general it is important to remove any diseased wood, so get rid of that first. Then it is important to allow air to circulate in the tree so remove any crossing branches, some varieties and rootstocks have a more untidy growth so need more of this type of pruning.
Pruning rules change depend on the age of the tree, with particular requirements for first three years, after that general rules apply.
It is important you can distinguish between leaf and fruit spurs. Remove the fruit spurs and you will not get a crop as a customer who tried themselves last year found out.
Although there is lots of advice in books and on the internet, we believe that the personal approach having us to show you how to manage your trees, point out fruiting and leaf spurs to you is the best way.
Please contact us and we can prune or show you how to prune your fruit trees.
