![]() The ideal is to end up with a strong terminal with lovely fruiting spurs ready for this season's plums. Plums fruit on fruiting spurs and one year old laterals, so it's important to remove any old or dead wood that's cluttering the tree to encourage new growth. The next priority is to reduce any tall, whippy growth. When working with a Japanese plum look to see what interferes with the shape of the tree. Look for six to nine nice, strong branches that can form that framework. This means opening up the centre of the tree to let in the light. When pruning plums it is important to train the tree into a vase shape. Pears fruit on the little flowering spurs, just like apples, but they also fruit on the tip of one year old laterals, and so when pruning reduce the terminal and leave these to produce fruit for next year. And remove any old fruit left hanging on the tree. Try to prune a quarter of an inch past a bud and at an angle. And the little stubby bits of growth, which are fruiting spurs, will develop apples this season. Leave the laterals intact because they will develop fruiting spurs for next season. ![]() There's also a branch that comes off the side of the shoot at an angle of between 30 and 60 degrees and that's called a lateral. Remember the shoot on the end of each tip is called a terminal and this won't ever fruit, so reduce that to just five or six buds. ![]() We want a nice, open framework and not too many competing branches, because it won't fruit properly. Remove and clear the clutter within the tree. When pruning apples look for a central leader, and prune to make sure there are no competing branches. These have survived with rainwater and no regular pruning.īut the trees now need attention. It has 25 trees including varieties of apples, pears and plums. This orchard in the Adelaide Hills was planted eight years ago. ![]() The aim of pruning fruit trees in the home garden is to assist the tree to produce reliable quality crops, with good size fruit on a manageable size tree. But if the trees grow too tall the fruit is high and hard to reach, and when there is unproductive wood they don't tend to crop reliably. These trees will fruit well whether or not they are pruned. Winter is the best time to prune deciduous fruit trees such as apples, pears and plums.
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