Fruit Dictionary Article
Pruning Your Fruit Trees Is Something That You Should Not Forget to do
When you decide to take the leap and plant your own fruit trees, you are undertaking quite an endeavor, especially if you have not had any prior experience in gardening. There is a lot of work to be done, and a lot of things that need your attention, if you expect your trees to thrive. One critical thing that should be done, which many growers often neglect is pruning.
When you prune your fruit trees, you are not only cutting them down to size because they are too large, which is what many people think. What you are doing, is cutting off dead branches and limbs, which actually helps your tree grow better and be healthier and stronger. When you notice dead or diseased branches on your tree, you should make certain that you prune them off quickly. All these branches are doing is leeching vital nutrients and water from the rest of the tree, which means that your entire tree could be at risk because of a few branches. By pruning these branches away from the tree, you can save yourself a lot of trouble, and potentially even save your tree.
A common mistake that many fruit tree growers make is thinking that they don’t have to prune their trees until they actually start to bear fruit. When you plant your tree, if you notice dead branches, or notice that one side has more branches than the other, you should prune your tree. By starting this early on, and keeping it up the entire time, your tree will be much healthier and produce much more fruit when it does reach maturity than if you had not pruned it at all.
When you start pruning your fruit trees, you want to first look for any problematic branches, such as those that are dead, damaged, or diseased. You shouldn’t have a hard time spotting these branches, as they may be discolored, or out of shape. Don’t worry about cutting them off; you are doing your tree a favor, even though it may not seem that way at the time. There branches will also not blossom or grow and fruit, which is a good way to tell there is a problem.
You also want to look for branches that are too close to each other, since they can actually kill each other by crowding each other out. Pick the smaller branch, and cut it off. The same thing applies if you have a tree that has one side fuller than the other, trim the branches off the full side to make the tree evenly balanced.
There are other times when you may need to prune your fruit tree, but these are the most basic instances where the health of your tree could be damaged by not pruning. You will need to check your tree at least once a month, or more often if you suspect problems.
