North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

> I do not consider myself very knowledgeable on plum & peach matters, 
> but will take a stab at this, seeing you question isn't answered after 
> one day's wait.


Thanks, Jerry. I did get a reply off-list. Alan Haigh says he's having 
trouble getting his posts to appear here.


> No, I wouldn't prune them now. It might promote new unwanted growth 
> now. Secondly they wouldn't heal over the wound, thus leaving the wood 
> unprotected and exposed until next summer.  Also removing the branches 
> would remove leaves needed to help build up energy for the root system 
> needed next spring.


I must say that this is pretty much the reverse of his advice. But I'm 
always glad to get different opinions. My point in summer pruning is to 
try to keep the trees small (and to remove vertical shoots that are 
really abundant - and LONG - on some of my trees). So in general, I 
probably WANT to restrict the energy available to the tree next spring.

But I didn't think about wound-healing. Does it really take weeks to 
heal over a wound? I mean, we've probably got almost two months before 
our first freeze. Do I have to worry about it healing by then?


> I find summer pruning is great for keeping plants small since it 
> shrinks the current supply of leaves (which then cannot work to store 
> food for the winter). In winter pruning, the plant already has stored 
> food and after pruning a plant, it springs forth with loads of new 
> growth when the weather warms. That is fine when I am trying to 
> invigorate a tree but not good at all if I am trying to keep it 
> small--around 7 feet or less.


Yes, that's mainly why I summer prune. Almost all of my trees tend to be 
too vigorous - some REALLY so. I try to keep the branches more 
horizontal, to slow their growth, but that just causes an abundance of 
tall vertical shoots. Of course, I want to do my summer pruning earlier 
than this, but I've really struggled to keep up this year.

Of course, our winters are much colder than yours, Idell. But if I get 
sprouting from the stubs I leave (I leave short stubs when I cut off the 
vertical shoots, but I don't know if that's wise), I wouldn't mind if 
the new growth was winter-killed. In fact, I might prefer it. I don't 
want growth there, anyway.

I don't prune back JUST the vertical shoots, but in general, I want to 
stunt the tree. So I'm not sure if the consequences of later pruning 
would be so bad.

Thanks for the replies! I won't be getting to the work today, in any 
case. There's always too much to do, and not enough time to do it (or 
maybe I'm just extra slow).

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

http://garthright.blogspot.com/

--
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need 
for illusion is deep. - Saul Bellow