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Click Here     For An In-Depth Guide To Training and Pruning Your  Home Orchard  

PRUNING FRUIT TREES (Just The Basics)                            
Pruning stimulates shoot growth, especially near the cuts; reduces overall tree size; eases harvest and spraying; improves structural strength; induces branching in young trees; increases production and fruit quality in mature trees; reduces the need to prop up fruit laden branches.

All fruit trees should be pruned to a vase shape.  In the first two years, you will select 4-6 main scaffold branches to form the vase shape.  You’ll use two main cutting techniques to prune your fruit trees, thinning and heading.  Thinning cuts are used to remove excess or undesired branches, i.e. ones growing upwards or inwards.  When you use thinning cuts you’ll remove the branch at its origin.  Heading cuts are made to reduce branch length.  When you make heading cuts, always make them at an angle, just above an outward facing bud.

Apples and Pears
Prune your new trees at planting.  Thin out weak side branches leaving the strong scaffold branches.  To maintain your vase shape, always make cuts at an angle just above an outward facing bud.  Some varieties are very upright growing and you’ll need to spread the scaffolding branches to obtain the best vase shape.  Your apples and pears bear fruit on long lived spurs, small twiggy stems growing on the secondary branches.  Since these spurs generally bear for 10 years, be careful not to damage them when you pick your fruit. 

Cherries
Cherries bear on branches that are at least two years old; each branch produces for ten or more years.  Upright growing varieties will bear more heavily, at a younger age, if you spread your scaffolding branches.  To reduce overall mature height, remove and head back the central leader on your new cherry tree.  During the first two years thin out weak, crossing, and inward growing branches.  Your cherry will need little pruning or thinning after the first two years; prune only to keep the center open and to reduce height.

Peaches and Nectarines
Your peaches fruit on last year’s new growth (one year old growth).  Once you harvest a peach, the section of branch it was growing on will never fruit again.  You need to encourage new growth by pruning heavily in mid summer.  Keep sturdy branches that grew more than a foot the previous summer, prune out any twigs that didn’t grow that much.  To keep your tree smaller you can also head back the sturdy branches by on third to one half their length.
At planting, remove all weak, twiggy growth, leaving 6-8 scaffolding branches; in later years you’ll only need to prune your young trees moderately.  Always prune upward growing branches to an outward growing lateral.  This creates a wider branching habit.  In 4-6 years, when the tree is bearing heavily, start pruning back the new growth on the top of the tree; maintaining an open center to admit light to the lower and inside parts of the tree.

Plums
Whether you have European or Japanese plums, they’ll fruit on older branches with heaviest fruit production on the branches that are 2-4 years old.  European plums need only occasional thinning and heading once you form the tree shape.  Japanese plums overgrow, overbear and are particularly prone to branch splitting when mature and bearing heavy crops.  Prune back long whips by one half and every year after to remove the oldest fruiting branches.  Keep long thin branches beaded to give the tree a wide, stubby shape.  Thin your fruit when it reaches thumbnail size; leave 4-6 inches between remaining fruit.