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!)