4 Seasons of Pruning
Fruit trees can be pruned any time of the year, but it depends on your climate, and pruning at different times of the year will give you different results. Let's break down pruning into the following four seasons:
Winter Pruning
In some climates, winter pruning is not desirable. Extreme cold temperatures can damage plant tissues that are exposed in the pruning process. In milder climates where temperature rarely dip below freezing, winter is a great time to prune your fruit trees. Winter pruning is a very proactive approach because there is little or no yard work to be done in the winter. Pruning is a great way to take advantage of the slower gardening season of winter.
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| Take Advantage of the Slow Winter Gardening Season |
Spring Pruning
The bulk of your pruning should be done in the spring. When temperatures rise and trees begin to come out of dormancy, they will respond quickly to pruning and begin to seal off pruning cuts immediately. By pruning in the spring you are allowing the tree a full growing season to heal from your pruning. Early spring is better than late spring because new leaves and blossoms are very fragile and can be damaged by your pruning.
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| New Leaves and Blossoms Can be Fragile in Spring |
Summer Pruning
Summer pruning is usually reserved for young fruit trees. To prevent your new fruit tree from becoming leggy, you can tip back the terminal bud of new growth, and your fruit tree will put on more lateral growth. This will give you more options when you do your structural pruning the following spring
Sometimes your fruit trees will experience disease or damage during the summer months. If this occurs, it is perfectly okay to cut branches as needed in the summer.
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In the summer, new growth will often shade fruit. This is not entirely bad but some backyard fruit growers will do a light summer pruning to allow more light to penetrate through the canopy. This will marginally aid in the ripening process, but significantly improve the outer color of the fruit at harvest time.
Fall Pruning
In fall, fruit trees are transferring energy and nutrients from leaves to the bark tissue of branches, trunks, and roots. This allows fruit trees to store energy through the winter so they can use that energy to grow blossoms and new leaves in the spring. If your tree is large and you want to suppress growth, fall pruning can eliminate some of that energy before it reaches the bark tissue, which will, in a way, put your tree on a diet and slow down its growth the following year.
Fall pruning will leave pruning cuts open through the winter, which will, as discussed above, cause some damage to those cuts when temperatures are too cold. In warmer climates these pruning cuts will not be damaged by freezing temperatures, but they will dry out and slow the healing process in the spring, making the exposed wood more susceptible to disease.
The freezing and drying of pruning cuts in the winter will have its greatest negative effects on large cuts, but smaller cuts, in a way, will be cauterized by the cold and drying through the winter, which will decrease the amount of water sprouts that grow in the spring.
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| Fall Pruning Can Suppress Spring Growth |
Conclusion
There is a time and place for pruning in any season. As you understand the pros and cons to pruning in different seasons, you will be able to confidently make decisions that will improve the health and productivity of your trees. Make sure you understand your climate and how your tree will respond to your pruning.
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