How to Trim Fruit Trees

Trimming a fruit tree is slightly different than pruning other types of vegetation, since the goal is to promote growth that will encourage a more productive crop. When trimming a fruit tree, you need to expose as much new growth as possible to sunlight, which will require a more complicated approach than usual.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Pruning shears

1. Use pruning shears with sharp blades to trim your fruit trees. Dull blades can permanently damage the wood and cause the entire branch to rot or die. A sharp blade will make trimming easier, and reduce the chance of a harmful bacteria or fungus entering the trees.
2. Trim a fruit tree that has been recently planted so that three to four of the strongest branches remain, while smaller branches are removed. Having too many large branches on a new fruit tree can limit the production of the fruit, since the root system can only supply so much water to the branches for adequate growth. Having smaller, less productive branches on the tree drains energy away from overall fruit production.
3. Remove all immature fruit during the first season of your fruit tree. Chances are that the fruit will not develop fully during this time, and the root system should be devoted to developing larger, more substantial branches.
4. Encourage exposure of the major branches to sunlight by trimming your fruit tree into a funnel shape, with the taper expanding toward the top of the tree. This will help sunlight to reach more of the branches consistently, and will help to avoid the development of lower, less productive branches that may be shaded as the tree matures. The stronger branches in a young fruit tree will generally point upward.
5. Prune the branches of your fruit tree each year in the early spring. Remove all dead or unproductive branches, and continue to trim the tree into a funnel shape. While an aggressive trimming may encourage equally aggressive growth into the summer months, care must be taken not to remove too many branches, which can result in slower growth.

Tips & Warnings

• Newly planted saplings should be cut to just 12 to 15 inches above the ground in the late fall to promote aggressive growth the next spring.
• Avoid pruning fruit trees in the middle of the summer, especially during the plant's first few seasons. This can weaken the root structure of the tree, and discourage fruit production for the entire year.

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