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Category: Planting - How to
Pune a Fruit Tree
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How to Prune a Fruit
Tree
This workshop deals
with pruning established apple trees (those more than three years
old) that already have a framework of branches. The overall shape
of a fruit tree should be like a goblet with branches growing upwards
and outwards from an open centre. This allows maximum sunlight in
for fruiting and ripening. Correct pruning of the young tree at
the nursery will have created this goblet shape so you should not
need to cut back the main branches of established trees very much.
Most apple varieties produce their fruit on fruiting spurs along
the stem. These are tips that grow off branches and have a bud-like
end that will produce the fruit and in a mature tree the spurs develop
into clusters that have to be thinned. A few varieties fruit at
the tips of shoots (see step 4). The catalogue will tell you which
type your apple tree is.
What You Need:
Secateurs; ladder or a tree pruner with a telescopic handle.
.
Step 1
Free-standing apple trees are pruned in winter. Cut back the leading
shoots on each branch: weak, thin shoots can be cut back by up to
one half their length; strong shoots by a quarter. Side shoots can
also be cut back: weak ones cut back to four buds; strong side shoots
back to six buds.
Step 2
Overcrowded spurs need to be thinned out to improve fruit quality.
Cut out the weakest shoots from each spur: the mass of shoots should
be reduced by a third leaving an open spur. The total number of
spurs on a branch can be reduced by removing any weak ones.
Step 3
Pruning a tip-bearing apple tree. Tip-bearing apple varieties have
long shoots and a more open appearance. The tips of the leading
shoots should be cut off. Some (about one in every three) of the
old side branches that have fruited should be cut right back to
a young shoot or bud. This will encourage young growth.
Source: Greenfingers.com
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