Pruning fruit trees

[TreeDaddy]

I started an orchard on 0.5 acre with 40 bare root trees from the wildlife group jan 2019

Apples,pears,crabs,persimmon,and plum

They started to grow well last spring and are in need of pruning now while they are dormant

I have been reading and watching videos on You tube re:pruning

Any tips or pearls from the group would be much appreciated

bill

 

[Turkey Creek]

We will have a new series of video posts on our Facebook page on pruning as we get into that portion of nursery work this spring, but likely a couple of weeks out on that yet. May even incorporate it into the website LOL

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We only have apples and crabs that I prune at camp - the 3 pear trees I let do their own thing. We have no persimmons and plums - so can't help there.

I've followed the advice of many apple tree experts at several universities, and prune / train our trees to a central leader. The overall shape of our trees is that of a Christmas tree - wider at the bottom and narrow at the top. That allows sunlight to reach the lower branches and trigger flowers / fruit. When trees are young - that's the best time to establish what the future shape of your trees will be, as well as the crotch angles where the scaffold limbs grow out from the trunks. Narrow "v's" are not what you want - narrow crotches are weaker and may likely break with a load of fruit on the limbs. There are many diagrams and examples online of how to train trees.

We have a few young apple trees with narrow crotches. I asked the head of Penn State's fruit tree program for advice on how to correct that problem. He told me via e-mail to cut those narrow-crotched limbs down to a short stub using a "Dutch cut" (look online for a picture / diagram of a "Dutch cut") so that a bud on the lower side of the stub - the longer side of the Dutch cut - is the outermost bud left on the limb stub. He said that bud will start a new limb with a wider crotch angle which I can then watch to make sure the limb grows more outward instead of upward.

Placing clothes pins at right angles to the trunk immediately above a new sprouting branchlet will force the crotch of that newly-forming limb to be more of a 90 degree angle than a narrow "v" angle. It's the easiest way I've found to establish good crotch angles on young trees. I learned that method from a few guys on this forum and from university online diagrams / articles. It works.

I would suggest you contact several universities' websites for great info on training / pruning your fruit trees. Cornell, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, U. of Illinois, U. of Mass. are all heavily focused on all research concerning fruit trees. Many of their professors will give advice via e-mail, or they have articles published online, or they conduct "webinars" to teach the public. ( If you see the letters "PRI" connected to any apple varieties, that refers to Purdue, Rutgers, and U. of Illinois. Those 3 universities have had a cooperative research program going for some years, and they're responsible for hybridizing many of today's DR apple varieties.)

Hope this is of some help.

I just saw Turkey Creek posted right ahead of this post. Great info from TC.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I am more of the lazy, low maintenance type of orchard guy. Every other year I will look over the trees, cut out any dead branches, I trim off branches that grow inward towards the main leader, I cut off any competing main leaders, and try to keep new shoots from growing to the sky. Other then that, I let them do their thing. For me it doesnt pay to trim my trees to perfection, because the bear like to go back after me and trim them a lot more then I like. So then I have to go back throughout the year and cut off broken branches. It makes for some ugly looking trees, but that is how the bear like them, and they control the orchard more then me.

 

[b116757]

Pear trees are best left alone with minimal pruning at least the ones I have tend to overreact with new growth.

 

[Prof.Kent]

I am more of the lazy, low maintenance type of orchard guy. Every other year I will look over the trees, cut out any dead branches, I trim off branches that grow inward towards the main leader, I cut off any competing main leaders, and try to keep new shoots from growing to the sky. Other then that, I let them do their thing. For me it doesnt pay to trim my trees to perfection, because the bear like to go back after me and trim them a lot more then I like. So then I have to go back throughout the year and cut off broken branches. It makes for some ugly looking trees, but that is how the bear like them, and they control the orchard more then me.

Ouch. Bad ol' bears. My trees are mostly pruned by deer up to 6 feet. I do the rest.

 

[b116757]

Carry a spray bottle filled with alcohol to mist your tools between trees to prevent spreading disease from one tree to the next. Oz of prevention worth a pound of cure

 

[BrushyPines]

I was actually about to post another thread until I saw this one. I have a central leader problem with a pear seedling. There are 2, one up top and one down below the top top one. Which one would you guys prune?

 

[BrushyPines]

Here is a pic of the whole tree

 

[Telemark]

I was actually about to post another thread until I saw this one. I have a central leader problem with a pear seedling. There are 2, one up top and one down below the top top one. Which one would you guys prune?
View attachment 40808

Wait til the bark is slipping and the branches are nice and whippy. Then just bend the lower ones out. I don't think it's quite as important with pears to have a central leader, but I think it is important to open up the crotch angles as early as possible.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Bear sympathy here. All we can do is try .... bears will be bears. (4Wanderingeyes - post #4)


I should have mentioned that the Penn State professor told me that for WILDLIFE trees, once the framework / shape of the trees is established - pruning can be done every second or third year. Broken, diseased, crossing / rubbing branches should be pruned out anytime they are found, he advised.

 

[Telemark]

I started an orchard on 0.5 acre with 40 bare root trees from the wildlife group jan 2019

Apples,pears,crabs,persimmon,and plum

They started to grow well last spring and are in need of pruning now while they are dormant

I have been reading and watching videos on You tube re:pruning

Any tips or pearls from the group would be much appreciated

bill

Each type has its own preferred way(s) of pruning and shaping. Better to just dive into reading and watching videos. Then start bit by bit and post here to get feedback.

 

[BrushyPines]

Wait til the bark is slipping and the branches are nice and whippy. Then just bend the lower ones out. I don't think it's quite as important with pears to have a central leader, but I think it is important to open up the crotch angles as early as possible.

Would you prune back any of the lateral branches?

 

[PatinPA]

I don't have anything to add. Just want this thread to pop up when people add to it. I've tried to prune trees before and they have ended up looking like monstrosities. I have some plum trees I need to prune back a lot this year due to black knot. Anyone know how they should be pruned for shape, since I have to cut them back to almost to a stub to get rid of all of the fungus. I'll take some pics next time I'm out if that helps. They're not american plums. I can't think of what they are off the top of my head, but I'll check next time I'm out.

 

[Barndog56]

Plums can easily be trained to an open center form, so cut back however far you need to. Whatever branches sprout will become your main laterals.

 

[cavey]

One problem I always run into with my crotch angles is the Dia. of my cages prevent me from pulling down some of those younger branches early on.

If you dont have a completely fenced in area its tough. Early on I had huge individual tree enclosures but as the number of tree I have added increased so did the associated costs. The size of the cage diameters decreased greatly just so I could afford to fence more and more trees and provide minimal protection... but the form of the trees has suffered.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I love my trees, but I dont mess with their crotches.

 

[blueKYstream]

I planted about 25 trees from The Wildlife Group in 2019 as well, so I'm probably at about the same stage you are TreeDaddy. I feel like mine were pretty small when I planted so maybe I'm behind a bit. I think I remember Alan from TWG posting a video on Facebook about a couple pear trees next to each other. One was trimmed back early on and the other not. The one not trimmed back was overbearing fruit and branches broke when it came into bearing. I'm not sure if trimming helps or not in that regard. Maybe others with more experience can chime in on that.

Regardless, I like to prune mine for the first 3-4 years or so. At some point when I reduce the cage sizes, the deer are going to trim the lower branches anyways. However, pruning will allow me to put a trunk protector or smaller cage. It might also allow me to run a brush cutter closer to the tree. Further, I seem to get a ton of suckers from low on the trunk. Sometimes I notice that the rootstock is trying to take over too. I also like to remove water sprouts and limbs that might rub each other.

I don't think pruning is as important with pears as it is with apples, but those first few years the tree is taking shape would seem to help down the road from removing large branches.

 

[Telemark]

Would you prune back any of the lateral branches?

Maybe a little. Hard to tell based on the photos. In extreme cases I would trim them back, but I would consider doing that in summer.

 

[Telemark]

I don't have anything to add. Just want this thread to pop up when people add to it. I've tried to prune trees before and they have ended up looking like monstrosities. I have some plum trees I need to prune back a lot this year due to black knot. Anyone know how they should be pruned for shape, since I have to cut them back to almost to a stub to get rid of all of the fungus. I'll take some pics next time I'm out if that helps. They're not american plums. I can't think of what they are off the top of my head, but I'll check next time I'm out.

Plums can be pruned to just about any shape you want. But if you cut it back to a nub, it will grow like a bush, so be prepared to make it a multi-year project.