The Best Time of the Year to Prune Fruit Trees
Pruning your fruit trees at the right time of year will enhance the amount and quality of the crop. Proper timing and pruning techniques are the keys to beautiful fruit and healthy trees. To ensure your trees are pruned appropriately, hire professional Gold Coast tree loppers.
When and how to prune fruit trees depends on the type. The size, rate of branch growth and fruit bearing are factors to consider. Your goal determines the time of pruning: do you want your fruit tree to grow straight upright? You may want to reduce the branches of a bushy fruit tree or a dry, weak, and broken one.
What is the best time of year to prune fruit trees? It depends on the type and goal.
1.Pruning during winter
This is a fantastic season for pruning if you live in a cold climate area. At this time, the fruit tree is dormant with almost no leaves, fruits, or flowers. This makes it easy to differentiate unwanted, weak, and less bearing branches from healthy ones since you can see them. Note that in early winter, branch growth is minimal, and healing would not be as fast as in later winter. This means that late winter is an excellent time for pruning as you can see a tree’s structure and wounds very easily.
Vigorous growth is encouraged if you prune in the winter. After doing away with unhealthy branches, the healthy ones have enough space and food available. The branches attain enough energy, and the risk of pests or disease attack is low since the fruit tree is less bushy. Small or big trees can be pruned during winter.
2.Pruning during spring
In the spring, the weather is warmer, meaning it is time for trees to emerge from their dormancy. The benefit of pruning during the spring is that you can identify an unproductive branch because there are no shoots or leaves emerging. For those who grow small or tender fruit trees, checking shoot emergence before pruning is crucial. If you want to make a large fruit tree more compact, spring is a good time to do the pruning. However, don’t expect vigorous growth after pruning in the spring since the tree has already used up its stored energy to fuel shoot, leaf, and branch growth.
3.Pruning during summer
Just like the winter and spring, summer pruning has many benefits. This is the best time to reduce the size of larger trees. During summer, fruit trees have no more stored energy; thus, they do not grow vigorously. Since the fruit tree is full of leaves, it produces energy through photosynthesis. Some of that energy is used up in summer growth while the remaining is drawn back to the roots to be used during the winter. You prune in summer even if it has been done during the winter or early spring. Now you can remove diseased, forgotten, crisscrossed, and newly grown or broken branches.
Conclusion
Hiring qualified Brisbane tree loppers is the way to go when it comes to fruit tree pruning. A qualified arborist knows the best time of the year to do the pruning, depending upon your goals and the size and type of your trees.
