4 Benefits to Pruning Fruit Tree Canopies

Pruning is the process of cutting away branches to manipulate a tree to accomplish the goals of the gardener. Fruit trees that are not managed, will grow unruly and decline in health and productivity. The four main reasons for pruning fruit tree canopies are as follows:

1. Removing dead, damaged, and diseased branches

2. Thinning

3. Reducing height

4. Increasing new growth

Remove dead, damaged, and diseased branches

In a single year, fruit trees undergo a lot of stress and challenges. 

In the winter months, heavy snow loads bear down on branches, freeze and thaw cycles cause bark to expand and contract, leaving splits in the bark, and a combination of cold, dry air and high winds can cause winter kill on new tender branches. In some areas, deer enjoy nibbling on bark and buds when other food sources are gone or covered in deep snow. 

In the spring, warmer, wet conditions are perfect for diseases like cytospora, coryneum blight, and fire blight to spread throughout your fruit trees. As spring turns to summer insects like caterpillars, aphids, grasshoppers and other pests begin attacking the leaves, bark, branches and fruit. In the fall the weight of heavy fruit is often too much for the tree to bear.

Heavy Fruit Loads Can Break Branches

When branches break, die, or become damaged from disease or other physical harm, It is important to prune out affected wood. If left unchecked, the dead wood can harbor wood-boring insects that can introduce fungal disease. Damaged branches can compromise the structural integrity of your tree, and diseases can become infestations that could eventually kill your tree.

One of the first steps to pruning fruit trees is to remove dead, damaged and diseased branches. The benefits being healthier, sturdier trees that can better resist the stress and challenges that will inevitably present themselves. This type of pruning can be done any time of the year as needed.

Thinning

After removing dead, damaged and diseased branches, it is important to continue thinning your fruit tree to improve light penetration into the canopy. Fruit trees are like solar generators and need the energy of the sun to grow and produce fruit. If outer branches are shading inner branches, the inner branches will become more of a liability than an asset. As interior fruit sets, the canopy becomes denser and the inner leaves and fruit will not have enough solar energy to continue ripening the new fruit. The tree will be forced to abort new fruit, and all of the energy used to produce that fruit will be wasted.

Young Fruit Will Abort Without Adequate Light

Thinning branches will also improve airflow. If there is high relative humidity, or there is standing water on leaves and branches for prolonged periods of time, these conditions will be conducive to fungal disease and unwanted insect pests. The increased light and airflow will keep your leaves and branches dry and also allow natural predators like birds and beneficial insects to remove unwanted insect pests.

The best way to thin your fruit tree canopy is to look for and remove crossing and/or parallel branches. If two or more branches are filling the same space, the redundancy of these branches can be fixed with pruning.

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Reduce the height

Most fruit trees, including semi-dwarf ones, will grow more than 20-30 feet tall without regular pruning. Trees that are this tall are difficult to prune, maintain and harvest from. After you remove dead, damaged, and diseased branches and you have thinned out parallel and/or crossing branches, it is important to tip your fruit tree. Tipping should not be mistaken with topping. When you tip a tree, you remove smaller branches that will heal and seal off in a relatively short period of time. It is important to tip branches at a node or fork to avoid branch die-back and ensure that the tree will be able to recover from the pruning cut. Topping trees is the bad practice of cutting large branches, and leaving stubs. Most trees will not recover from this type of pruning and if they do, the exposed heartwood will rot and compromise the structural integrity of the tree.

Heart Wood Rot Compromises Structural Integrity

In addition to removing height, removing length will shorten branches that cannot support heavy fruit loads. Think of how much harder it is to hold a bowling ball with your arms extended out away from your body. Now imagine how much easier it will be to hold that same ball close to your body. You can utilize the structure of the tree to support the weight of the fruit by removing the length of branches in fruit trees.

Increase new growth 

When pruned correctly, fruit trees will be invigorated and stimulated to grow new branches. These new branches in apples and pears are called water sprouts. Although most of them will be removed in the spring, these water sprouts can be important in replacing less productive branches and filling in areas that have been removed due to dead, damaged, and diseased branches. The water sprouts are not productive in their infancy, but their many leaves play an important part in providing the energy needed to seal up pruning cuts.

Pruning Stimulates Water Sprouts

Many fruit trees like peaches, nectarines, cherries and apricots, only grow fruit on new, one-year-old branches. By regular pruning, you can increase the number of new productive branches for the next season. As fruit trees age and mature it is important to replace older branches with new ones. This practice will help eliminate disease, increase productivity, and extend the overall life of your tree.

Conclusion

By increasing new growth, reducing height, thinning, and removing dead, damaged, or diseased branches, you, as the gardener, can manipulate your tree in such a way that you will be able to accomplish your goals of productive, healthy fruit trees.

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