Wondering when to prune fruit trees? The answer depends on your goals. So, let’s say that you have a small, young apple tree and you want it to grow quickly and produce a better quality harvest. In that case, late winter pruning is a great idea because winter pruning spurs vigorous growth.
But what if you have a cherry tree that is already too large to harvest? In that case, you might opt for summer pruning. When you prune your fruit tree during the summer you can reduce its size by cutting off some of its branches (never more than 25 percent of them a year though) without encouraging vigorous growth.
There are also other considerations when considering when to prune fruit trees. Is your tree diseased? Are some of the branches broken? Does it produce lots of poor quality fruit? Do you live in a very cold climate in which late summer and autumn pruning can be risky? I’m going to explore some of these questions in this blog.
But first of all why does winter pruning spur vigorous growth when summer pruning does not? …………….
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