Wild Thing
5 year old buck +
Any issues with removing lower branches now? I thought most pruning had to be done in late winter? I have tons of smaller crabs/apples that I would like to trim some lower branches on, but was worried about removing branches so close to winter? Thanks for your help!
Yes - The conservative practice says to prune only when trees are dormant and then no more than 20%-25% of the tree at any one time. I tend to be more aggressive and have never had any fire blight issues here so on young trees you will find me pruning off lower/unwanted branches once when they are dormant (like the first day I plant the tree) and again in late summer....and again the next spring, etc, until I shape the tree up into what I want it to look like as a mature tree. I have had very good success doing this, but back in my early years of growing I did lose a few trees by over pruning them. I had a guy at the local NRCS office tell me it was "virtually impossible to over prune an apple tree". I proved him wrong.
I would not hesitate to remove a very few branches from your trees this time of year...just don't overdo it.