Prune Home Fruit Trees To Improve Crop Size And Quality

Fruit tree pruning ranks high on most home gardeners' “to do” list during the winter months. While deciduous fruit trees may be pruned at other times of the year, most gardeners do their annual heavy pruning during the trees' dormant period. Deciduous fruit trees need some annual pruning to remain vigorous and productive.

If you do not prune your trees enough, they will become too tall to harvest, even with a tall ladder. If you have an unpruned fruit tree in your garden, you know that most of the fruit grows at the top. Yearly pruning is necessary to keep the tree at a reasonable height, for instance, no more than 10 or 12 feet high. 

If your tree is already overgrown, you may want to reduce its height gradually, say over two years. The main objectives of pruning mature fruit trees are to reduce the number and increase the size of the potential crop, to develop new fruitwood, to remove interfering and broken branches, and to contain tree height and spread for convenient harvest. 

Most fruit trees, when not pruned, produce more fruit than they can size and mature properly. You can prevent such overproduction with yearly pruning. You must take the help of tree pruning Sydney service providers to keep your tree healthy and in good shape. 

If you do not prune your fruit trees for several years, not only will they grow too tall, but they also become brushy and weak and stop producing satisfactory fruitwood. Some new fruitwood is necessary each year for most trees to keep producing good crops. Which wood becomes fruitful, and at what time, depends on the species of tree.

Persimmons, many figs, quinces, and pomegranates bear fruit on the current season's growth. When you prune these trees, remove old and weak branches, leaving some younger branches to produce new growth and fruit in the coming year. 

Overcrowding and lack of sunlight will cause branches to die, so you need to thin out some branches to allow light infiltration into the tree so that the fruitwood stays healthy.

Nut trees such as almonds and walnuts do not need as much pruning for height control as fruit trees. You harvest nuts by knocking them down with a long pole, rather than by handpicking, so the trees can be much taller.