Fruit tree pruning time

Now that the worst cold winter blasts are hopefully over, dormant season fruit tree pruning should be completed in March prior to bud break. The pruned peach tree in the left foreground looks sparse compared to the unpruned tree to the right. This is as it should be.

Peaches put on a lot of growth and should be pruned hard. They bloom on 1 year old wood and if shoots are left for two years or more, they don't produce fruit. Much of last year's growth should be thinned out to avoid overproduction and allow light into the tree. Excessive fruit production reduces quality and also weighs down branches causing limb breakage.

To balance growth of fruiting wood with peach fruit production, remove one-half to two-thirds of last summer's growth. Space fruiting shoots 6 inches apart remembering to leave long shoots of 12 to 24 inches (they fruit better). On the interior of the tree smaller shoots can be left. Don't worry, you will have plenty of new shoot growth over the season to provide fruiting wood for next year's peach crop.

Little annual pruning is needed on fruiting sour cherries and plums. Bearing apples and pears require a light annual thinning for light penetration. Avoid removal of the short fruiting spurs. Unpruned trees may produce more fruit of lower quality for a few years, that is until growth gets so dense that fruiting on the interior ceases.

Train young trees for a sound structure in the first few years. Then maintain bearing trees with annual pruning for a productive fruit tree.

Late dormant season fruit tree pruning

Before buds break in March, prune dormant fruit trees. Recently I helped prune peaches in a Denver community garden (unpruned peach photo left). Peaches must be pruned hard every year as they only bear fruit on one year old twigs. Renew them yearly by pruning to replace nearly all fruiting wood. Two year old or older twigs are unproductive.














The photo left illustrates how hard this pruning should be on peaches (pruned branch left, unpruned tree right side of photo). You should end up with a skeleton of thick, blunt scaffold limbs sprouting very few thin, one year old twigs (photo right). Leave bearing twigs of 12 to 18 inches in length removing the shorter ones (bear small fruit) and longer ones (bear too many and are subject to breakage).

Twigs pointing upward and out at 45 degree angles from horizontal are most productive. Remove vertical and downward pointing twigs. “Stacked” twigs or branches growing over top one another shade the lower twig so remove one of them.

Prune trees to allow light into the center of the tree. With fruit trees, light equals fruit. Dense, unpruned trees will yield poorly. Remove dead and interfering branches, renew fruiting wood, and control size to keep bearing wood close to the ground.

Maintain a zone of equilibrium between excess growth (the rank growth tendency of the top of the tree) and poor fruiting (lower portion tendency). Do this by pruning harder in upper, outer portions of a tree to allow light in. Most home gardeners tend to prune mature trees too little.

Finally, remember that pears, cherries, apricots and most apples bear fruit on short spurs that last for some years. This is very different than peaches so don’t prune off the short spurs or you will have no crop.

Here’s hoping that spring freezes spare our fruit tree blossoms so we can have a good fruit crop this year.

Photo credit, All peach pruning photos, Carl Wilson