Simple Steps to Pruning Fruit Trees

It seems like it was just last week that you planted those spindly looking, bare-root fruit trees. But you did everything right in the beginning - from careful selection of tree varieties and pollinators that thrive in your area, to site selection, spacing, and planting - so now you’re enjoying baskets of fruit from full-sized trees. Take the time to prune your mature trees each year, you’ll help them remain strong and productive. Proper pruning technique helps preserve the right balance between fruiting growth and non-fruiting growth, and while some potentially fruit-bearing buds will be cut away during this process, the buds that remain will be far more vigorous. Once pruned, your fruit tree will produce a burst of new fruit-bearing growth and also nurture young fruits that are just beginning to develop. The ideal time frame to prune your fruit tree is from late fall until the tree blossoms in in spring, but avoid pruning a tree during periods of extreme cold.

Check for Disease and Damage

With a saw or loppers, carefully cut away any damaged or dead branches where they meet the trunk of the tree, or prune them back to healthy tissue. Inspect the tree’s branches carefully for signs of disease - especially dark, discolored areas - and for the tiny black specs which indicate the presence of harmful fungal spores. Prune away any diseased branches at least 6” back from the blighted area. 

Use Proper Pruning Technique

A time-tested technique for  pruning larger limbs, is to cut a branch to about 12” in length, then make a small cut into the underside of the branch, before completing the cut by sawing from above. Finish by cutting off the stub, leaving the existing ‘collar’ intact,  which will help the tree heal faster. Shorten sagging branches, and remove any spindly shoots growing downward from the bottom of the limbs.

Thin & Shape Branches

All those lanky, fast-growing, vertical branches are called water sprouts, or ‘suckers’, and they tend to yield anemic-looking fruit, and they also block sunlight to more productive branches. Cut off most or even all of the suckers, leaving a few only if needed to help protect the tree from sun scald. This is usually only necessary if there were a large amount of suckers, and removing them all at once would expose to intense, full sunlight, parts of the tree that had previously been shaded.

 Fruiting Spurs for Apples and Pears

The stocky little nubs on pear and apple trees are called spurs, and these are where these two tree species will yield most of their fruit. When pruning apple and pear trees, prune off any of the weak-looking spurs, so that only the hardiest remain. And thin out areas with overcrowded spurs so that there will be plenty of space for fruit to reach full size. Try to picture a full-sized apple or pear in pace of each spur - If it seems impossibly tight, do some thinning.