Pruning fruit trees is a perfect health remedy for humans suffering daylight deficiency in the dead of winter, and makes the tree healthier and more productive too.<\/p>\n
The main aim with all fruit trees and soft bush fruit is to let air circulate between branches and allow each one as much daylight as possible.\u00a0 Cut out weak, wispy shoots and branches that \u2018cross over\u2019 each other.\u00a0 By the time you have finished, you should be able to see through the tree and be left with a small number of strong branches.<\/p>\n
On a freestanding tree aim for three or four strong side branches and a \u2018leader\u2019 \u2013 the leading strong and upright branch.\u00a0 This is easier said than done, as different varieties have different game plans, but try and give the tree as much light and air as possible, whatever its shape.<\/p>\n
In our orchard rooks tend to perch as high as they can, usually on the precious leader, and snap it off. Once the leader has been broken, you rarely get a single successor, and end up with a shrubbier tree than before.\u00a0 To protect the leader on a new tree, we often tie a bamboo protruding above the top to stop this happening.<\/p>\n
Fruit trees set bud in the autumn, so prune healthy shoots to about 6\u201d, which leaves a number of next year\u2019s fruit bearing\u00a0 nodes on each.<\/p>\n
When cutting out an unwanted shoot, cut it back to its \u2018shoulder\u2019, proud of where it joins the main branch, not flush with it.\u00a0 This allows the cut to heal and keep canker out.\u00a0 Often you get upright and quick-growing water shoots around a former prune, these never bear fruit and should be removed.<\/p>\n
If a tree has been left unpruned for decades, and has a great thicket of branches, prune it drastically, all the time with an eye to keeping just a few strong branches.\u00a0 The tree will soon revive itself.<\/p>\n
The tree can be shaped however you want if you are feeling creative and lust for a particular shape.\u00a0 Most fruit trees are grown on numbered rootstocks, which dictate how big the tree can grow.\u00a0 Cordons are grown on dwarfing\u00a0 rootstocks such as M7 or M9, full size trees on M25.\u00a0 Soil and climate also affect growth rate, and the subject then gets quite complicated.\u00a0 If you prune an M25 hard, it will simply grow back with a vengeance, and vice versa.<\/p>\n
Most professionals prune in the winter, if you have time then pruning in the summer can help keep the tree growing just as you want.\u00a0 And what do you get when you cross an apple with a Christmas tree?\u00a0 A pineapple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pruning fruit trees is a perfect health remedy for humans suffering daylight deficiency in the dead of winter, and makes the tree healthier and more productive too. The main aim with all fruit trees and soft bush fruit is to let air circulate between branches and allow each one as much daylight as possible.\u00a0 Cut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-3543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-gardening","tag-fergus-dowding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}