North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

> Maybe I'm wrong, but I would suspect that in a hot dry climate, summer 
> pruning would aleviate stress on the tree rather than create more.  You're 
> taking away leaf surface area that is otherwise respirating and causing water 
> loss in the plant.  If it stimulates new growth that hasn't hardened off I 
> could see how that might be less than ideal, but I don't think the tree is 
> going to put much energy into that if water is an issue.
>   


That's very interesting, Michael. I hadn't thought of it in that way.

I guess I just thought that pruning would always be stressful, and that 
each cut would have to be healed (meanwhile leaking fluids?). But I 
suppose a pruning cut on a green, growing twig would seal itself pretty 
quickly. Obviously, I still wouldn't want to do it on a particularly hot 
and windy day, but maybe I've been looking at this wrong.

Thanks for the observation!

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know 
this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same 
time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is 
based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we 
logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - 
Steve Eley