North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

It seems like I've been behind on everything this summer, and I still 
haven't done any summer pruning on my plum or peach trees. I've heard 
that I should stop summer pruning by the first of August, to give new 
shoots time to harden off before winter. So is it too late to prune 
these particular trees now?

And will it do any good, anyway, this late in the summer? My intent with 
it has always been to try to keep the trees small (which is especially 
hard with my Toka plum). I keep the branches only a little above 
horizontal, which means that I have very long vertical shoots growing up 
everywhere on those trees which are especially vigorous. Should I still 
cut them back now, or just wait for dormant pruning next spring?

I've got other things to keep me busy today, but I planned to get to 
this as soon as I can. I'm just wondering if it will do any good this 
late in the summer - or at least do no harm. Any advice?

PS. If it matters, the peaches and nectarines are picked, except for a 
fall variety that doesn't need summer pruning anyway. The plums are 
fully ripe and mostly picked already. (Frankly, the plums are really 
infested with worms, and there's a lot of brown rot in them, too. 
Apparently, my spraying regimen was badly lacking this year. On the 
bright side, I'm eating the last of the Redhaven peaches right now, and 
they're absolutely wonderful!)

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

http://garthright.blogspot.com/

--
In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did 
succeed in making those idiots understand their language. - Mark Twain