Pruning Fruit

[Arob]

Just wondering if anyone does much fruit tree pruning.

 

But moreover, do you carry out work on fruit trees and flowering Cherries throughout the year? Or only specific times of the year?

[log supplier]

theres 2 seasons for pruning fruit trees ...........summer and winter

[nepia]

Yeah, get quite a lot of apples to do but mostly it's renovation pruning that folk want when they realise their tree has been neglected. I go and hack hard, leaving strict instructions that regular pruning must be done later. Whether the inevitable water shoots actually do get controlled is another matter but at least they can be done with secateurs.

Cherries look awful after a hard prune and you just know that they aren't going to be maintained!

[log supplier]

best to prune in the winter though...

give them a good cutting back and there will be plenty of big fruit...

[log supplier]

Yeah, get quite a lot of apples to do but mostly it's renovation pruning that folk want when they realise their tree has been neglected. I go and hack hard, leaving strict instructions that regular pruning must be done later. Whether the inevitable water shoots actually do get controlled is another matter but at least they can be done with secateurs.

Cherries look awful after a hard prune and you just know that they aren't going to be maintained!

 

been asked to do a few cherrys, after some1s hacked away at them...

wouldnt touch them as there was nothing left to cut...

also the embarrasment of other people thinking i started the cutting in the first place...

not for me.................

Edited March 1, 2009 by log supplier

[firewoodman]

never prune any tree which is in flower is my advice. the amount of grief you get for that is unbelievable even when the darn thing has fallen over

[danbrown87]

There seems to be a lot of literature etc. about not pruning cherries or plums in the winter because they are most at risk of being infected with Silver Leaf at this time. But I've been working for a company doing a lot of Local Authority work for the past six months (including autumn/winter) and it doesn't seem to bother them, so not sure.

[Mesterh]

I was told (maybe falsely) that silver leaf was caused by pruning in or just before the spring.

[nepia]

All the literature I've seen on Silverleaf says cut when the sap's flowing fast so that it flushes away spores before they can germinate. Logical if there's a lot of Silverleaf about; is it that common? I haven't a clue...

[Arob]

I wasn't sure if it was a hot potato but as you (Dan and Nepia) have pointed out there does seem to be quite a bit of work done at times which seem to be at odds with best practice, or commonly available advice.

 

I've been getting into apple pruning lately and it is very satifying to begin the process of restoration, but it is often a long road, I have found these Fruitwise films to be informative [ame]

[/ame]

 

(Nepia, a good bit of advice I got re; watershoots, pull out when young and never remove more than 90% so that there is somewhere for the energy to go, if these can't be allowed to develop to form new fruiting wood then they can be pruned out gradually in successive years)