Fruit tree pruning

It is widely stated that careful attention to pruning and training young trees improves their later productivity and longevity, and that good pruning and training can also prevent later injury from weak crotches or forks (where a tree trunk splits into two or more branches) that break from the weight of fruit, snow, or ice on the branches.

Plants form new tissue in an area called the meristem, located near the tips of roots and shoots, where active cell division takes place.

Manipulating this natural response to damage (known as the principle of apical dominance) by processes such as pruning (as well as coppicing and pollarding) allows the arborist to determine the shape, size, and productivity of many fruiting trees and bushes.

Unpruned trees tend to produce large numbers of small fruits that may be difficult to reach when harvesting by hand.

In the early years of the tree's life, it is important to develop a framework sufficiently strong to bear the weight of crops.

Formative pruning of apple (Malus pumila) and pear (Pyrus communis) trees should be carried out in the dormant winter months.

A feathered maiden (that is, a one-year-old tree with several side branches) should have its main stem pruned back to three or four strong shoots at 80 cm (31 in) from the ground.

Spur-bearing types include apples of the varieties 'Cox's Orange Pippin', 'James Grieve' and 'Sunset', and pears such as 'Conference', 'Doyenne du Commice', and 'Williams Bon Chretien'.

Tip-bearers on the other hand produce most of their fruit buds at the tips of slender shoots grown the previous summer, and include the apples 'Worcester Pearmain' and 'Irish Peach', and the pears such as 'Jargonelle' and 'Josephine de Malines'.