Fruit Tree Pruning for Beginners

            If you haven’t pruned your fruit trees yet, it’s not too late. Prune grapes as late as possible; toward the end of February or first week of March in the Las Vegas valley. More will be coming on grapes in the coming weeks. Final pruning of fruit trees for less experienced pruners is best delayed until flowers appear. It’s a lot easier then to see where fruit will be produced when actual flowers are seen.

If you wait to prune until flowers appear or start to swell it can be easier to see what to prune and what to leave behind.

Pruning fruit trees is a two-step process; the first step controls the size of older trees and trains the developing major limbs of younger trees to eventually support smaller branches and fruit. The second step in pruning focuses on spreading fruit production throughout the entire tree’s canopy. The first step is done any time after leaf drop in the fall but before flower and fruit production in early spring. As soon as the tree is pruned for size and major limb selection is established, apply dormant oil sprays for preventing many different types of insect damage in the coming months. Do this before flowering starts. These two steps can be done separately or at the same time. I suggest two separate steps for the less experienced.

Prune tree structure to either open center like this peach tree or modified central leader.

During the first three years after planting the focus is on developing the tree’s structure. While the tree is in its first three years, major limbs are trained by directing the limbs to grow at 45° angles from the ground. Ninety percent of pruning efforts during the first season focus on establishing the overall tree structure; about 50% the second season and about 10% the third season. Once the overall structure of the tree is established, very little of this type of pruning needs to be done in in the future. From that point forward, pruning is focused on fruit production. Pruning to control its size is done when the tree is over four or five years old.

This apple tree is pruned into a modified central leader structure because it wants that kind of structure. Peach grows more like a bush so it lends itself to open center pruning structure. No hard and fast rules to follow.

On peach and nectarine, fruit production should come from all parts along the scaffold limbs, not just the tips. Pruning for fruit production focuses on developing young, newer growth horizontally like a feather, with plenty of space between branches to allow indirect light inside the tree canopy. This means removing most upward and downward growth.

In the Mojave Desert because of our hot, bright summer sun, focus is on finding a “balance” between shading the limbs inside the tree as well as its trunk and opening the canopy for more light. This balances the trees need for sunlight with its potential damage.

Pruning and Painting Peach After Limb Breakage

Q. I pruned some fruit-laden heavy branches from my semi-dwarf nectarine tree during the hot summer months last year. I think I've damaged the tree. The leaves on a few branches turned yellow/orange while 80% of the other leaves look dead. Should I do some heavy pruning, or wait and see?

Limb breakage of peach due to heavy fruit load. Thin and prune. This opening can lead to sunburn on the branches and subsequent borer damage to the limbs.

A. Leave the tree unpruned this season to protect itself as much as possible. Let it send up lots of new growth this spring and hope for the best. Right now, the tree needs to shade its larger limbs and trunk to help prevent sunburn and prevent borers from attacking the tree. Scientists report that borers love to attack peach and nectarine trees where intense sunlight has damaged it. Borers are not controlled by winter sprays of horticultural oil.

Peach tree painted with white latex paint right after planting.

Paint the upper surface of exposed large limbs and the south and west sides of the trunk with diluted white latex paint. Painting or covering these areas helps reduce sunburn. Sunburn results from intense sunlight shining on exposed areas. Painting exposed surfaces of the tree with any light-colored latex paint mixed half-and-half with water helps reduce this damage. It won’t eliminate its possibility, but helps to reduce it.

Ready made white tree paint. It can be made by diluting white latex paint with water, 50/50.

As a precaution, drench the soil around the tree with a systemic insecticide for borer control. Do this immediately after the tree finishes flowering this spring. Don’t eat the fruit, produced this season, from this tree because the insecticide is systemic and likely inside the fruit. Most of it will be gone from the tree by the next growing season. Follow the label directions exactly.

Next season remove major limbs only during the winter months and always remove fruit from your tree when it’s tiny so as to reduce limb breakage.

Meyers Lemon Tree Needs Some Training

Q. I have a Meyers lemon tree that needs pruning. How do you suggest I should proceed?

A. Older citrus, including Myers lemon, needs little pruning once it’s over about four or five years old, if it’s been trained properly. When young, it should be trained to grow into a tree.

If your Meyers lemon looks more like a shrub than a tree, then prune it to one central trunk.

            The same structure used for training other fruit trees is applied to citrus; the central trunk has limbs removed from its trunk or multiple trunks up to about knee height. Limbs are removed from the trunk so that heavy fruit still attached to the remaining limbs doesn’t wind up sitting on the ground. Fruit touching the ground is more likely to spoil.

            While it’s still young, develop the main scaffold limbs that support new growth and fruit. These scaffold limbs should grow from the trunk or trunks “like spokes on a wheel”. Make sure these major limbs have at least 6 inches between them, originate in a spiral pattern from the trunk, and they are not growing on top of one another. When limbs grow on top of one another then shading and light distribution throughout the canopy is a problem.

            I always start inspecting the trees for good limb distribution at the bottom, usually on my hands and knees. First, I inspect the trunk up to my knees and make sure it’s “clean”. Next, I inspect the limb structure from my knees to my waist and make sure these scaffold limbs are well distributed. I fix any stems that are crossing over each other, broken, or creating too much shade.

If the tree is too tall, I remove upright branches that contribute to its height. These pruning cuts are made inside the canopy at “crotches” where two or more limbs come together.

Finally, I inspect the tree up to its top, looking for the same types of problems as before. After the structure of the tree is inspected, I then fix any problems with light distribution inside the canopy. After the fourth or fifth year, little pruning of citrus is needed.

How Often to Sanitize Pruning Equipment

Q. How often do you sanitize your pruning shears and what do you use?

Loppers are sanitized with an alcohol wipe before pruning begins for the day.

How to sanitize pruning shears

A. The primary reason I start my pruning day with an alcohol spray or alcohol wipes applied to pruning blades is for sanitary reasons. First, I clean the blades with soap and water and then sanitize them when finished. Chances are probably one in 500 that it’s not needed, but it’s that one case in 500 where sanitation is important because of diseases.

            I usually only sanitize the blades of my hand shears and loppers. I sanitize the saw blade only when it’s needed which is seldom if I prune every year. I start pruning with loppers first and finish pruning with my hand shears. Once the lopper blades have been sanitized, they are never placed on the ground again. There are at least five plant disease problems found in soil. Instead, they are hung around my neck or on a limb of the next tree I will be pruning.

            If a tree looks like it may have a disease problem, I sanitize equipment that I use after I finish pruning. If it’s a highly virulent disease like fire blight, the blades are sanitized between each pruning cut.

See the whole video on sharpening, adjust and sanitizing pruning equipment here.