Pruning Fruit Trees

Yesterday I did the pruning of the fruit trees. If you do not properly prune trees your fruit development will be limited. I have a small orchard of 6 semi-dwarf trees so this process took only about 30 minutes. There are three normal methods of pruning trees: Central leader, Open Center and Modified leader. The third method id the one I use.

The modified leader used the advantages of both methods. With the modified leader you begin pruning like a Central leader but after 4 to 5 main scaffolds have formed the central leader is cut back above the top scaffold. Then when the scaffold reach desired length you cut them back to the a weak lateral breach. After that pruning is done like a central leader but you keep an open center. For regular trees pruning in this method id good if you want to make them shade trees too. One problem with this method you will not have fruit until about the eight year unless you temporarily keep some undesirable branches as I do.

Below are sources of information for pruning trees from the colleges and Universities

Training and pruning Fruit Trees-North Carolina State University.

Purdue University

Kansas State University

UC Davis