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[<dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com>]



I always though that new growth stopped after terminal buds set, anyway.....usually in late July or very early August.  I do any summer pruning after the terminals have set.  We have a fellow grower north of us in Wisconsin that has inmates come in in do all of his pruning in August!

 

Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
Office (815) 648-4467
Mobile (815) 228-2174
Fax (609) 228-2174
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
http://www.revivalhymn.com

----- Original Message -----

From: Alan Haigh

To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 4:38 PM

Subject: [NAFEX] summer pruning in Z 5-6 New York

Pruning apples from mid-July on does not stimulate much vegetative growth and that growth is not noticeably tender in my experience.  Espaliers have always  been pruned in mid-summer.  I prune every work hour of almost every day from the first week of July sometimes through September and have never seen "tender" growth as a consequence.  Some of the big old apples I manage only get pruned in summer because winter and early spring just aren't long enough for me to get everything done (dam short days!).

 

My customers who get me only in summer actually probably get the most bang for their buck (although I do end up knocking off quite a few apples if it's the only pruning of the year).  Because it slows down regrowth, summer pruning means less pruning over all in the long term.

 

The danger of tender growth leaving all types of fruit trees more susceptable to winter kill do to insufficient hardening off is quite exaggerated in my opinion and observation.  The one time in my nursery that I saw a real impressive surge of late growth was when we got a lot of rain in mid August after a very dry June and July.

 

It seemed like everthing just let go of all that pent-up energy to grow (the water would also cause a sudden release of N.) and grew like a second spring.  The Japanese plums were the only things of all the species I grow that showed any ill affect at all, in spite of a very cold winter.  Even that damage was only to the late growing shoots themselves- all othere tissue hardened off as it should.  In other words, no important damage occured at all.