A Way To Garden

A Way To Garden

'horticultural how-to and woo-woo'
the source of organic gardening inspiration
margaret roach, head gardener

Menu
  • podcast
  • Plants
    • annuals & perennials »
      • groundcovers
    • bulbs
    • trees & shrubs »
      • conifers
      • deciduous
    • vines
    • vegetables
    • tomatoes
    • herbs
    • fruit
    • houseplants
    • taxonomy 101
    • decoding botanical latin
  • recipes
    • soups
    • entrees
    • side dishes
    • salads
    • desserts
    • pickles & condiments
    • freezing & canning
    • baking
    • guest chefs
  • how-to
    • weeds
    • pests & diseases
    • garden prep
    • composting
    • organics
    • pruning
    • garden design
    • from seed »
      • seed starting
    • water gardening
    • shade gardening
    • container gardening
    • lawn care (organic)
    • garden faq’s
    • for beginners
  • nature
    • bird sh-t
    • frogboys
    • insects & worms
    • jack the demon cat
    • mushrooms & other fungi
  • about
    • margaret and her website
    • my public-radio podcast
    • my 2018 garden events
    • my books
    • my email newsletter
    • my garden
    • horticultural ‘woo-woo’
    • sponsorship
    • resource links
  • Home
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • Pintrest
    • Feed
    • Podcast
  • my books
  • 2018 garden events
  • when to start seed
  • webinars
  • monthly chores
  • garden faq’s
  • top-50
  • andre jordan doodles
  • slideshows

When and how do I prune fruit trees?

Fruit-tree pruning is an exception among early bloomers: With apples and the like, including ornamentals like crabapples, what you’re working toward isn’t as much the pretty flowers as an architecture and openness that can carry and ripen maximum fruit. I prune in late winter, knowing those are apple blossoms-to-be I am cutting off.

Every year, remove all the water sprouts or suckers—thin, whip-like wood that juts straight up from the main limbs but could never support any fruit—with a folding saw or running shears.

Then there’s the hard part: taking out big branches. Step back and evaluate the tree, or even better take pictures and digitally “black out” the branches you think the tree would eventually be better without. How does it look now, “without” them?

The basic idea is to open the center to allow light and air circulation, and also to lower the crown if possible. Never remove more than one-third of the tree’s live wood in any year. It will take at least three years, therefore, to accomplish what you imagine when you “pruned” the expendable parts of the tree out of the snapshot.

When removing large branches, first reduce the weight of the limb by cutting off half of it. See the 3-step cut answer, above.

Related

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK

facebook-1

SPONSORS AND FRIENDS

  • select seeds rare flowers
  • Avant Gardens rare plants
  • Vermont WIllows
  • 300+ garden climbers

get my podcast

ads-podcast-frog300

PODCAST SPONSORS

Margaret Recommends

My picks of garden gear, books, and mulch, mulch more, all things I use myself. (Disclosure: includes affiliate links.)

READ MY BOOKS?

  • Margaret's dropout memoir
  • margaret's latest book

RECENT FAVORITES

  1. when to start seed
  2. cattle-panel diy projects, with joe lamp'l: trellises, cages, planting grids and more
  3. when to start cleanup, houseplant watering, lily leaf beetle, adelgid: q&a with ken druse
  4. asian jumping worms: what we know, with uw-madison's brad herrick
  5. pairing clematis with proper partners, with linda beutler of rogerson clematis collection
  6. best phlox for gardeners and butterflies, with mt. cuba's george coombs
  7. the march garden chores
  8. why vegetable seedlings stretch and get spindly
  9. the april garden chores
  10. meet travis cox, age 17, 'the garden scout'


Load More...
Follow on Instagram

SEARCH ANY TOPIC

Quotes

  • ...Gardening is akin to writing stories. No experience could have taught me more about grief or flowers, about achieving survival by going, young fingers in the ground, the limit of physical exhaustion.
    —Eudora Welty

Welcome! I’m Margaret Roach, a leading garden writer for 25 years—at ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ ‘Newsday,’ and in three books. I host a public-radio podcast; I also lecture, plus hold tours at my 2.3-acre Hudson Valley (NY) Zone 5B garden, and always say no to chemicals and yes to great plants.

  • © 2008-2018, Margaret Roach Inc.

  • contact
  • sponsorship
  • privacy policy
  • terms of use
built by WebDevStudios; design by Kenneth B Smith