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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: NAFEX List <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Summer pruning
  • Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 11:31:14 -0500

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





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