If you grow fruit trees, the best time to prune them is now - in winter - or in very early spring before any new growth begins.
Pruning not only helps develop proper shape and form, but also encourages new growth, promotes high fruit yield, and maintains good tree health. My outdoor grounds crew recently pruned many of the apple trees around my farm. Soon after, they also tackled my orchard, where I grow more than 200 fruit trees - more apples, but also all kinds of pears, peaches, cherries, medlars, and quince. It makes me so happy to care for these trees. In return, they produce bounties of delicious fruits for me and my family.
Enjoy these photos.
Fresh fruit is one of nature’s most delicious products. I have an orchard around my pool filled with more than 200 different fruit trees. This is what it looks like in summer.
While I have many fruit trees around the farm, my orchard contains an organized selection of peach trees, apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, pear, medlar, and quince trees. Many were bare-root cuttings when they arrived and now they’re beautiful mature specimens.
These last few years have brought an abundance of fruit. I’ve had bounties of peaches to share with my family.
I also grow plenty of pears – Bartlett, Columbia, D’Amalis, Ginnybrook, McLaughlin, Nova, Patten, Seckel, Stacyville, and Washington State.
Asian pears are usually smaller than regular pears and have a sweeter flavor. Asian pears are also a bit more crisp.
And of course, many more apples. These orchard apple trees include Baldwin, Black Oxford, Cortland, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg, Fuji, Golden Russet, Grimes Golden, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Redfield, Roxbury Russet, Windham Russet, and more.
And this is the orchard now. The fruit trees are extremely healthy, in part because of all the care and maintenance that is done to keep them doing well. Here is a section of trees before they are pruned.
This year, I asked my longtime arborists from SavATree to spend a day at my farm offering tips to my crew – a refresher course for using the best pruning methods. I’ve been using SavATree for many years and they’ve helped keep all my trees in excellent condition.
The proper tools for this job include these trusted pruners. These Okatsune bypass pruners are very helpful in cutting water sprouts and small, thin branches.
For slightly larger branches up to two-inches in diameter, my crew uses the STIHL bypass loppers.
And a pruning saw like this one cuts on both the fore stroke and back stroke and is designed for cutting thicker branches.
I prefer much of the work be done by hand. Cutting by hand gives my trees a more natural appearance and shape.
Here, a long handled pole pruner is used to remove harder to reach water sprouts. Water sprouts are thin branches which normally grow straight up from lateral branches and do not bear fruit.
Dead branches, or those without any signs of new growth, are also cut, so the energy is directed to the branches with fruiting buds.
Pruning cuts should be made fairly flush to the branch from which it grew. The idea is to leave very slight stubs close to the collar. In time, this cut will heal over properly.
Phurba cuts branches that are rubbing or crisscrossing each other, preventing any healthy new growth. Basically, the goal is to create a tree with well spaced lateral branches. Any branches which interfere with the tree’s shape or create a dense framework should be removed.
And every so often he steps back to assess his work. A well pruned tree should have a balanced shape. I instruct the crew to cut about a third of the new growth.
After the branches are cut, they are gathered, neatly piled, and then either saved for kindling or processed through a wood chipper to make mulch.
Pasang removes crowded branches to help let in light and promote good air circulation. Pasang is also mindful of the leader. A leader is the dominant trunk of a tree. He defines which one it is and creates a good shape around it.
It looks like a lot of branches are removed, but good pruning actually improves productivity and promotes more fruiting.
This tree looks great after pruning. Its size is well maintained and it has a good and balanced shape.
I am looking forward to many lustrous green trees heavy with fruit come summer.
Proper pruning is so important - it improves the health of the plants, prevents disease, and encourages better flowering. There are different pruning strategies for different times of the year, but overall the goals are the same - to control the height and shape, develop good limb structure, encourage growth, remove damaged or diseased branches, and to allow for better air circulation. Not long ago, my outdoor grounds crew pruned many of my apple trees - those that are original to the farm and the dwarf espaliered apple trees I planted when I moved here.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Every year my apple trees produce a multitude of delicious fruits. This is my dwarf apple espalier behind my carport.
Espalier refers to an ancient technique, resulting in trees that grow flat, either against a wall, or along a wire-strung framework. They’re supported on wire attached to strong antique granite posts from China originally used as grape supports. There are four rows of espaliered apples here. I also have espaliered Gravenstein apples across the carriage road and espaliered apples in my living maze.
Some of the trees I maintain are original to the farm. They also continue to produce so many wonderful fruits.
I have all different varieties that are great to eat right off the tree, pressed into cider, or baked into pies and tarts.
The apple tree is a deciduous tree in the rose family best known for its sweet, pomaceous fruit. These trees do so well because I take excellent care of them. All my apple trees are fed and pruned regularly during the year.
Here’s Phurba atop one of the “ancient” apple trees across from my Winter House behind the herbaceous peony bed. The vigorous, upward-growing branches on these trees are all last year’s new growth, which need to be removed.
These are water sprouts. These won’t produce fruit, so many of them are pruned so the light can still reach through the center of the trees.
Here’s Chhiring working in another section pruning the Ds – the dead, diseased, damaged, and deranged or crisscrossing branches, as well as any water sprouts and suckers.
The crew is able to reach many branches with hand pruners. Pruning shears, hand pruners, or secateurs are a type of scissors used on plants. They are strong enough to prune hard branches of trees and shrubs, sometimes up to an inch thick.
For thicker branches, the crew also uses a pruning hand saw. A pruning saw makes it easier to cut branches and not harm them.
Here’s a clean cut. These can only be made with sharp tools. I encourage everyone to keep their tools in tiptop condition.
In general, when pruning always encourage branches to grow toward the outside of the tree and eliminate those that grow toward the center or cross other branches. Air and light need to penetrate the foliage to the center of the tree as much as possible.
In the springtime, apple trees flower and produce fruit on long-lived, stubby twigs called spurs, often referred to as old wood. Pruning encourages the tree to grow more of these fruiting spurs. All our fruit trees are pruned once a year.
After all the branches are cut, they are gathered, neatly piled, and then processed through a wood chipper to make mulch.
The same pruning methods are used at the espaliered apples.
Here’s Chhiring cutting off the water sprouts. He also focuses on the overall height of the espaliered trees, so the end result is even along the entire row.
When Phurba prunes he cuts branches at a 45 to 60 degree angle. Using hand tools takes a little longer, but gives my trees a more natural appearance and shape.
Here is another good cut. It is close to the branch collar at the base of the limb.
Look at all the cut branches from just one row of dwarf apple trees.
By the end of this project, every row is cut just right.
Controlling woody plant growth for the production of fruit has been a practice since the 18th and 19th centuries. The espaliered fruits were easier to access and adorned many stately homes. Right now at my farm, there’s still snow on the ground, but it won’t be long before these trees are filled with gorgeous flavorful fruits.
In order to keep my all my gardens, allées, and groves as beautiful as possible, I pay lots of attention to the maintenance and care of all my trees. This time of year, my outdoor grounds crew is busy pruning many of the trees, including my lindens.
Lindens, Tilia, are medium to large sized shade trees that are easy to maintain and attractive in any landscape. I have two linden tree allées - one that runs from the old corn crib all the way down to the chicken coops and the other slightly older allée near my stable. These trees, with their pyramidal shape and slow growth, are excellent specimens for the type of pruning called pollarding, a very severe method that involves cutting back on the main limbs, or even all the way down to the top of the trunk to promote the growth of club-headed stems and dense new foliage and branches. Pollarding should be done annually. We started pollarding these lindens in 2021, and we've noticed good development in the years since.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
This photo was taken just before pruning began. It was a cold day, but sunny and not too windy so it was perfect for some high tree work.
These lindens have grown beautifully here at the farm. This photo was taken in summer when the trees were all full of leaves. Lindens have a loose canopy that produces dappled shade on the ground below, allowing in just enough sunlight for shade grasses and flowers to develop nicely.
Here they are in late summer just before the leaves turn. Linden trees are easy to care for and ideal for urban landscapes because they tolerate a wide range of adverse conditions, including pollution.
And in autumn, the leaves take on a beautiful golden hue before eventually dropping.
The best time to prune and pollard trees is when the trees are dormant, during the cold winter months. It’s best to complete all pruning before early spring when the buds begin to form. Dormancy pruning reduces the amount of stress placed on the tree. The reduced flow of fluids in the tree during the time helps the pruning wounds heal quicker.
High, overcrowded limbs are removed first. Phurba also cuts any visible Ds of pruning – dead, diseased, damaged, or deranged and crisscrossing branches.
Then Phurba starts pollarding, which is essentially forming a “knuckle” or “bole” by removing growth back to the main stem.
It is easy to see where any branch was previously cut. Here are a couple of older pruning cuts on a lower branch.
Here is a closer look at one upward growing branch that is not pollarded yet. This year, I asked the crew to focus on these upward branches and leave more of the sides, so the trees leaf out wide and full.
And here is one tree almost done – notice the tops are starting to develop “nubs” or “knuckles” – these will look even better year after year. More thought and planning goes into pollarding than regular topping, and lopping. Pollarding is similar to coppicing but plants are cut back to a stump, rather than down to the ground.
And here is a new cut – always made outside the branch collar at a 45 to 60 degree angle to the branch bark ridge.
Everyone on the crew uses sharp bypass pruners. Remember, a sharp tool always cuts clean, and helps the plant to recover better. Dull cutting tools rip and shred the plant tissue.
Here’s Phurba also using a telescoping pole saw for cutting hard to reach branches. This tool is lightweight and has a very sharp blade for making smooth cuts. It is ideal for pruning higher branches that are not too thick.
Chhiring stays on the ground raking up the fallen branches and watching everyone from below.
The branches are gathered and then loaded onto the dump truck and taken to a designated pile for the wood chipper.
Pollarding can help make trees live longer by maintaining them in a partially juvenile state and by reducing the weight and windage of the top part of the tree.
Here’s Pasang working on another tree. It takes several days to get the entire allée completed. Regular and thorough pruning will give the branches more air circulation and room to grow.
Here is one side complete. It looks great. Each year the long slender shoots that grow below the cuts will be removed, and a set of new shoots will develop creating a gnarled appearance.
All the trees are trimmed to the same height. Some of the other types of trees that can benefit from pollarding include beech trees, black locust trees, catalpa trees, hornbeams, horse chestnuts, London planetrees, mulberry trees, redbuds, and willows. It’s exciting to see these trees grow and evolve over time.
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