North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Anton wrote "I basically agree with Alan.  One minor clarification is that
the stimulation of growth by summer pruning near harvest works OK for early
ripening cultivars, but not as well for the late-ripening cultivars.  Soft
new growth stimulated too close to winter will encourage freeze damage & the
tree won't have sufficient time to develop fruiting buds on the new growth."
, to which I respond.

The point of summer pruning one month before harvest is not so much to
stimulate new growth as to help the peaches color and size up as is stated
in the Rutger's guidelines I provided a link to.  They discuss different
ripening times and specifically suggest holding off pruning for later
ripening varieties on the schedule I noted.  There research is in NJ, of
course.

It's easy for me to believe Rutgers as I've never had any problem with trees
suffering as a result of summer pruning at this time in Z6 and I've been
doing it here for a couple of decades- not that that proves anything,
especially if you've suffered winter kill from the same practice.

My experience, and I prune fruit trees all day long from mid-Dec until early
April and then again most days from mid-July until mid Sept, is danger from
winter damage by over stimulation of late summer growth is largely
mythological.  I believe you can have some problems if you prune shortly
before extreme cold but all these other fears, such as late summer
fertilization or pruning- well I'll believe it when I see it.

I first became skeptical one year when my nursery was stunting out from a
bad drought.  Rain came in mid-Aug and a lot of stuff began vigorously
growing- especially J. plums.  The only thing to suffer winter damage was
the very tips of those late growing shoots after the following unusually
cold winter.  The wood held up well in all my trees.  These kind of late
growth surges are a natural event anywhere with summer rain that
occassionally get drought.

Since that time I've read of fall fertilization experiments that seem to
confirm my hunch.  You can check out what Carl Whitcomb says about that in
his "Establishment and Maintenance of Landscape Plants.  I believe there's a
copy in the NAFEX library.

I'm not saying I know anything here, but I have my opinions.  Anton, are
yours based on bad experiences, because a lot of things might be in play
there.  I'd love to be directed to some research if mines wrong,  because
I'd hate to be giving people bad advice.