North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

I've read about summer pruning, but IMHO, it sounds easier that it is. 
I'm trying to keep my trees small, and they're trying to grow as big as 
possible. So far, they seem to be winning. But maybe I can get some 
advice here...

This year, I tied down the branches of my fruit trees so that they're 
closer to horizontal (not completely, but not too far off, especially on 
the apricot). I was hoping to slow their growth a bit. That might be 
working, but they're also sprouting out a lot of shoots along the 
branches, shoots that want to go straight up. These vary from being 
about 10-12" apart on my apricot tree, to a solid mass of shoots on my 
Toka plum (one of the most vigorous trees I've ever seen).

Let's start with the apricot. Should I remove these vertical shoots, or 
just cut them back? The tree has been pretty vigorous, but I think that 
tying the branches down slowed it up a bunch. Really, they're almost 
completely horizontal at the ends, so the vertical shoots are no 
surprise at all. (It's a really nice looking tree, and even set a few 
apricots, despite the cold weather and the shortage of bees.) The 
instructions I've read about summer pruning says to cut the new growth 
back by 1/3, I think, but when I tried that on the plum last year...

OK, let's talk about the plum. I hadn't tied down the branches last year 
(just used limb spreaders to get a good crotch angle), so every branch - 
and there were LOTS of them - started growing straight up, just past the 
limb spreader. When I tried to do summer pruning, and cut the growth 
back, I got a mass of sprouts just below the cut, all of which grew like 
crazy (straight up). It was such a huge weight that many of the branches 
couldn't even hold it up. Needless to say, it was a mess. (I don't 
expect the apricot to be quite that bad, but I'll still get multiple 
sprouts from every one I cut back, won't I?)

As I say, I tied down the branches on the plum this year, as best I 
could (not nearly as horizontal as the apricot, though). Still, every 
inch of the tree seems to want to produce a new shoot, and they're all 
just as determined to grow vertically. Should I remove a bunch of these 
shoots this summer? Just cut them off at the base? I'm really lost here.

I'd hoped that I'd get a big crop of plums, to keep the vigor down a 
bit. But the Toka plum - my most vigorous plum (planted two years ago) - 
had relatively few blossoms this spring and set almost no fruit. But the 
one-year-old Superior plum planted right next to it (to replace one that 
died) was a solid mass of blossoms - and set so much fruit that I had to 
thin like crazy (and I still have to tie the branches UP, not down). 
Wouldn't you know? None of my four plums are dwarves (which I couldn't 
find). I foolishly believed the propaganda that I could keep a tree any 
size I wanted with summer pruning (and I thought plums were naturally 
'small,' anyway).

This is getting too long already. Sorry about that! I'll just mention 
the peaches. They've become too bushy because of the oriental fruit 
moths, but I'm working on that. They seem to be more vigorous than the 
apricot, but less than the plums (not much less, though). However, I 
don't know what they'd be like without constant OFM attacks on the ends 
of each twig (I'm hoping to find out this year). Also, three of the four 
set quite a bit of fruit (enough to require significant thinning) this 
year, so that might slow them down.

I'd be grateful for some advice here. How do you do summer pruning? (And 
if you cut the shoots back, how do you deal with the mass of sprouts 
that result?)

Thanks much,

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
Science is the only true guide in life. - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk