Planting and Pruning
Fruit Trees

PLANTING AND PRUNING FRUIT TREES

Once you have chosen and planted a fruit tree, you need to prune it regularly so that it produces a good crop of ripe, healthy fruits. In the first couple of years, the aim is to form a basic, permanent framework of branches. After than, prune to keep this framework balanced and open so that it produces a constant supply of fruiting wood.

Fruit trees can be pruned and trained into a variety of forms, but the simplest of these is the bush, since it is most similar to the way a fruit tree grows naturally. It forms a graceful, compact tree ideal for most gardens. All fruit trees – from apples and pears to plums, peaches, and citrus fruits – can be grown in this way, and all are pruned using the same basic method. If your garden already has an established but neglected fruit tree, you will need to renovate the tree – once this is done, follow the routine pruning method given below.

Choosing and Pruning A Fruit Tree

Buy and plant your tree in late autumn or early spring, and start formative pruning in winter or early spring. Some fruit trees, including apples, need to be planted with a compatible cultivar nearby so that they can pollinate each other; without this they will not fruit. For details of compatible trees, check with your supplier. It is best to buy a one year old tree with several vigorous, undamaged branches – although thin and flexible at first, pruning in the first couple of years will thicken them up.

Basic Pruning Guidelines

All fruit trees need careful and regular pruning to keep them in good condition and to help keep disease at bay. This is usually done annually. For a bush tree the aim is to encourage a straight trunk, supporting a bowl shaped system of branches growing upward and outward allowing light and air to reach the center (see “Year of planting” and “Follow year”). Always prune back to a healthy looking bud; this stimulates sideshoots to form along the branch. Choose a bud that points in an outward direction so that the resulting shoot will grow to keep the center of the tree open and its shape balanced. Remove shoots growing downward or toward the center of the tree, cutting out any damaged or diseased stems at the same time.

If the tree fruits on small spurs along the branches, prune the ends by one-third of the new growth, and new sideshoots to five or six buds to encourage more spurs to form. If it fruits toward the tips of the branches, remove some sideshoots that have already borne bruit to ensure a supply of new ones.

The Best Time To Prune

• Apples: late winter for bush trees, summer for trained trees (eg. Espallers).
• Pears: late winter for bush trees, just after midsummer for trained trees.
• Plums: midsummer for bush and trained trees.
• Peaches and nectarines: midsummer after fruiting for bush and trained trees.
• Apricots: late summer after fruiting for bush and trained trees.
• Sweet cherries: early summer, then midsummer after fruiting for bush and trained trees.
• Sour cherries: midsummer after fruiting for bush and trained trees.
• Citrus: after fruiting for bush trees.

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