Fruit Tree Pruning - Pruning The Cropping Tree

Pruning The Cropping Tree

Before pruning, distinguish between spur-bearing varieties, tip-bearing varieties, and an intermediate between the two that bears both on spurs and at the tips. Spur-bearing trees occur more frequently than tip-bearing trees, and they bear most of their fruit yearly at the end of short lateral pieces of wood (spurs) up to about 4 inches long. Spur-bearing types include apples of the varieties Cox's Orange Pippin, James Grieve and Sunset, and pears such as Conference, Doyenne du Commice and Williams Bon Chretien. Tip-bearers on the other hand produce most of their fruit buds at the tips of slender shoots grown the previous summer, and include the apples Worcester Pearmain and Irish Peach, and the pears such as Jargonelle and Josephine de Malines. There are basically three types of pruning that are applied once the main shape of the tree has been established. These are:

• Spur pruning: Spur bearing varieties form spurs naturally, but spur growth can also be induced.
• Renewal pruning: This also depends on the tendency of many apple and pear trees to form flower buds on unpruned two-year-old laterals. It is a technique best used for the strong laterals on the outer part of the tree where there is room for such growth. Pruning long-neglected fruit trees is a task that should be undertaken over a lengthy period, with not more than one third of the branches that require removal being taken each year.
• Regulatory pruning: This is carried out on the tree as a whole, and is aimed at keeping the tree and its environment healthy, e.g., by keeping the centre open so that air can circulate; removing dead or diseased wood; preventing branches from becoming overcrowded (branches should be roughly 50 cm apart and spurs not less than 25 cm apart along the branch framework); and preventing any branches from crossing.