Pruning

Comment

Comment by Jude on July 19, 2012 at 7:27pm

Hi, I've 'inherited' a range of quite old and very poorly-managed trees, most of which I'm happily pruning back into life. One type I'm just not familiar with though, is persimmons. Does anyone here know much about them, in terms of what age wood they fruit on, how heavily they should be pruned, ideal shape, etc (bearing in mind that these are old, and its a rehab job, not forming up nice yound trees). Thanks for any help

Comment by Ingrid Ennis on July 7, 2012 at 10:59am

Pruning is something that seem quite daunting. The main concepts are; Never prune off more than a quarter of the tree. When you have old and overgrown trees just take your time. Its okay to take a couple of years to bring them back to how you want them.

Most plants need sun to promote flowering, so prune to open up your plants.

Always cut off one big branch rather than lots of little ones. This means the plant only has one wound to deal with, and its a lot quicker!

Pruning after fruiting (or flowering in ornamentals) is the general rule. This is so that you don't cut off next year's flowers, which may be sitting dormant and may be unrecognizable. So for autumn fruiting feijoas, prune after you have picked or collected the last fruit.

Stonefruit are generally pruned in early summer to try to reduce the likelihood of a disease called silverleaf from entering the wound. The idea is that in summer wounds will heal over more quickly, so the disease gets less of a chance.  

If you are growing subtropicals in a marginal climate, it can be a good idea to prune just as the weather warms up and you can see new growth. This will let you see which branches may have had frost or cold damage over the winter, so you can remove these and then see if you do need to do any more pruning.

Cut off anything with damage first. then look to see if you do need to prune anything else. this might be enough.

For the first year or two, don't prune apples, pears and stonefruit. Especially don't take out the growing point at the top as you want the plant to form a natural pyramid shape. This way you'll get earlier fruiting and a more natural shape that is easier to maintain.

A really good book about fruit trees in general is: Temperate and Subtropical Fruit Production by David Jackson. Its not cheap, but your library may have a copy.

Comment by leah pitkethley on June 28, 2012 at 2:09pm

I NEED HELP, we started renting this house in september '11. we have a lot of fruit trees, now that i have worked out what they are i need some help with pruning, i have tried books but they all deal with new "pretty" straght trees. these trees we have are old and out of control. i dont really have a clue what to do, i would welcome some "in person" help as opposed to online as i dont really understand the terminology, we aren't in a possition to pay someone money but would happily share the "fruits" of labour, is there anyone in the "west ak/helensville" area that could come and show me what to do, we are at the top of south head.  stone fruit, citrus, feijoa, coffee, macadamia, persimon, banana, cherry guava, custard apple, olive, pip fruit. we can accomodate and feed as its a bit out of the way.

Comment by Isabell Strange on June 5, 2010 at 8:21pm

very bushy, so Im going to thin them a bit and hopefully they will flower a bit earlier if more light is let in. My moon calendar recommends pruning two days before to four days after the last quarter when sap run is low.

Comment by Isabell Strange on June 5, 2010 at 8:17pm

Hi Flo, I have The A-Z Pruning Handbook For New Zealand by Jon Muller. I find it moderately useful It has a larger range of ornamentals than food trees however. I found the site I have cut and pasted below very useful www.wairarapaorganics.org.nz/workshop.../summer_pruning_08.pdf
I have just been investigating feijoa pruning and am not as yet satisfied. Jon didnt tell me when to prune and one site I found recommended pruning in summer after fruiting, not overly helpful as they are autumn fruiting usually and here they will still be dropping at the end of june. For fruiting Jon recommends cutting back to a node past the fruiting wood to encourage new growth. I have pruned the lower branches off mine to give better access to pick up fruit and hopefully to give better airflow and am just going to prune when all the fruit has fallen, some of mine are v

Comment by Flo on June 3, 2010 at 10:08pm

Hi Isabell, they're some tasty looking currants! I've got a few neglected fruit trees (peach, apple, feijoa, cherry) and was wondering if you can recommend any books in particular about fruit tree pruning? Flo

Comment by Isabell Strange on January 1, 2010 at 1:57am

My black currants are ripe and Ive read to prune after fruiting and to prune off this seasons spent fruiting spurs, so tommorrow I'm going to prune and then pick my currants relaxing in an arm chair.

Comment by Isabell Strange on November 12, 2009 at 9:15pm

now is the time for thinning apples, my neighbor told me to take out the larger ones, can any one confirm this and how many apples should be left per node?

Comment by Isabell Strange on October 17, 2009 at 9:19pm

i have a few different books giving advice in pruning and have become confused about when to prune stone fruit trees. Some recommend summer pruning?