My Fruit Tree Pruning Tool Bag

No matter what you do in life, it is always done easier with the right tools. Whether you're fixing a car, cooking a meal, or working in the garden, tools can improve efficiency, and decrease frustrations. In this article I will show you my professional fruit tree pruning tool bag and what I carry with me from one job to another. As long as I have my bag of tools with me, I can approach any fruit tree pruning problem that I encounter.

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Pruning Tools:

The bag

I like to use a tool bag because it can be easily carried around with me and I can set it on the front seat of my truck. Having a bag of tools close by will allow you to keep everything you need contained and protected in one simple place.

Folding Saw

I know some people like to use battery operated chain saws or reciprocal saws, but I find that a good sharp folding saw that is designed for pruning trees weighs less, and can cut through large branches just as fast. 

A hand saw also gives you more control. Power tools take a few seconds to wind down and often cause nicks and scratches on other parts of your tree where you don't want them. This kind of damage can become a place for disease to enter your tree.

Hand Pruners

These forged steel pruning shears will last for years and can be sharpened indefinitely. I admit that I have broken a few, but only after dropping them on the concrete from an 8 foot ladder. These shears remain sharp longer than any tool that I have ever used.

Disinfectant

When pruning fruit trees, you should be mindful of infectious diseases like Fire Blight and Cytospora. Pruning can spread diseases from one branch to another or from one tree to another. You can mix up your own batch with water and bleach, or rubbing alcohol, but I find that bleach products are corrosive to metal and an aerosol spray with an alcohol base is a durable, convenient way to have a disinfectant ready at all times.

Metal File

I prune thousands of trees every year. After a long day I find that my pruning shears start to develop a bur on the cutting edge. They will still cut, but running a file over the blade will remove the bur, keep my tools sharp, make cuts cleaner and easier.

WD 40

After sharpening my tools, I like to lubricate the moving parts and protect the metal from rust. A quick shot of WD 40 will do the trick.

Safety Glasses

One time I was pruning an apple tree with a grape vine close by. The grape decided the tree was a great trellis sent vines the the very top of the tree. As I pulled the vine out the tree it turned one of the apple tree water sprouts into a whip that slapped me in the eye ball. Now I wear safety glasses when I prune trees. I also noticed that I get fewer pieces of sawdust in my eye when I'm wearing eye protection.

Work Gloves

I have good calluses on my had. I don't wear gloves to avoid blisters, I wear them to keep my hands from getting cut and scraped by sharp branches and sharp pruning tools.

Mearsuring Tape

This is one tool that you probably won't need unless you prune fruit trees professionally. We use this tool to measure the height and width of the tree for estimating purposes.

Tree Wrap

I like to keep a roll of tree wrap in my bag for wrapping trees in the fall. This will prevent them from getting sun scald in the winter. I have also used tree wrap with a splint to repair broken branches. Usually I will just remove a broken branch, but sometimes I get special requests from customers to try to repair them.

Twisty Ties

I like to use this product for training grape vines and espalier trees to a trellis.

Other Tools:

Loppers 

These two handed shears are large and bulky. I have a pair with me in the truck, but obviously these do not fit in my tool bag. I usually only bring these out when I'm trying to reduce a pile of branches before sending them through the chipper. I find that I can just as easily make the same cuts with my folding saw as I can with the loppers.

Pole Pruner

This is a valuable tool for taller trees. Again, they won't fit in my tool bag, but when I need it, I need it. It's always in my truck.

Ladder

Again, this tool won't fit in my bag, but I can't prune tall trees without it.

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