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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: NAFEX List <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Summer Pruning
  • Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:58:52 -0500

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





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