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Good Gardening: Pruning

Luisella Planeta
/
Pixabay

Hi All, Lane County Extension Service Master Gardener John Fischer here with KLCC's Good Gardening.

Last month I talked about prepping a spot for a fruit tree - the same thing works for those almost useless ornamentals too. This month we'll touch on the most confusing part of fruit growing for many folks - pruning. Whatever you like to do is fine - almost.

The only thing you can do catastrophically wrong is to remove all the 2-year-old wood on apples, pears, and European plums. Those trees produce fruit on wood that is 2 years old or older. A friend helped me with pruning last year and was much more aggressive than I am. The result was a tiny crop on a normally prolific Fuji apple.

Apples, pears, and European plums produce fruit on wood that is 2-years-old or older.
John Fischer
/
KLCC
Apples, pears, and European plums produce fruit on wood that is 2-years-old or older.

Peaches, nectarines, and Asian plums all bear on one year old wood. Grapes bear on wood that is produced during the current growing season. Getting less fruit will often produce bigger fruit - so prune a little harder for store size apples. Thinning your crop after the fruit has set will produce larger - and less pest-prone produce too. Cutting out crossing and broken branches is always a good idea.

Otherwise, keep your trees short if you don't like ladders, let them spread if you want shade- and more fruit, or train them tall for an elegant look and an annual picking challenge.

When I buy a fruit tree, I always get bare root. If I can't, I'll gently wash the soil from the potted tree off the roots so I can examine and spread the roots in their new home - my soil. I have seen many potted trees with roots circling the container sides. Dig an oversize hole, and spread those roods out. If you leave the often enhanced and amended soil from the pot on the tree when you plant it, the new roots may not venture out into your soil, and your tree will languish- often for years - before it starts bearing well.

John Fischer is a Master Gardener and Master Recycler and the host of KLCC's Good Gardening and Living Less Unsustainably.