A couple of weeks ago my guy and I attended a tree pruning workshop as part of the Bronx Green-Up.
There are a number of fruit trees in our backyard that are quite overgrown and scraggly right now. They are so overgrown and scraggly that they will not efficiently bear fruit, so we won’t get to enjoy much of a harvest as a result. So, I wanted to learn how to prune the trees to improve the situation. Sure, I could ask my landlord to do it, but I thought it would be more fun to learn to do it myself.
The workshop was held at the El Girasol Garden on 138th Street. A woman named Sara Katz led the workshop. She is a community horticulturalist with the NY Botanical Garden. She educated us on basic pruning techniques, as well as why you prune and when.
So, why should we prune? Well, there are four primary reasons: 1) to increase air flow throughout the tree to avoid fungal disease, which can lead to rotting fruit; 2) to increase access to the sun by the fruit, which improves the quality of the fruit as well a their color; 3) to removed dead, diseased, and damaged branches/wood; and 4) to encourage the tree to have good form, which both pleases the eye and helps the tree remain stable and accessible.
One of the things that mystified me was how to decide when to prune. Turns out late winter (right now!) is the best time to prune. When you prune in the late winter after the most intense cold has passed, the tree is less likely to sustain injury, like frostbite. Additionally, it’s just easier to see the shape and construction of the tree in winter because the leaves are all gone.
Sara gave us guidelines as to how much of the tree to prune: never prune more than 1/3 of the living wood in any season; and it’s better to under-prune than over-prune. That being said, some trees are more vigorous than others, and can be pruned with more intensity. Stone fruit, like apricots, peaches, and plums can be pruned more aggressively than apple trees, because apricot trees grow faster than apple trees.
There are two main kinds of pruning cuts: thinning out cuts and heading back cuts. The purpose of thinning out cuts is to remove crowding in the tree, by removing a whole branch. Heading back cuts involve shortening the length of a branch, and consist of larger cuts. If done properly, the result of thinning out cuts is no new growth where the cut was made, and the result of heading back cut is to encourage growth and later fruiting from the cut point.
As far as pruning technique, clean cuts are very important. Cut cleanly to the branch, and the tree will respond positively. Messy cuts can cause problems later down the line. Also, use different tools for live wood vs. dead wood: loppers and pruners for live wood, saws for dead wood.
As far as tools, loppers are the pruners with a cutting tip attached to long handles. Pruners are smaller, and fit into the hand; you often see people pruning rosebushes with these. There are also tools with very long handles for higher reach, like to prune way up at the tippy top of the tree.
Probably the most challenging aspect of the afternoon for me was figuring out what exactly to prune. A basic list is as follows:
- Suckers or watersprouts. They are called watersprouts if they grow off of branches, and suckers if they grow up from the ground around the base of the tree. They grow straight up and are pretty easy to spot. They are vigorous growers and drain nutrients that the tree needs for fruit production.
- Downward growing branches. They do nothing for the tree and should be removed.
- Broken branches or stubs. Usually the result of earlier damage, such a storms, improper pruning, or a break. Disease and/or insects use such places as an opportunity to set up shop, so it’s best to remove them.
- Shaded interior branches. Since they won’t get much sun, the fruit they bear – if any – will be of lower quality. Remove them.
- Rubbing branches. When branches rub together, it injures their bark, which is an open invitation to insects or disease. Make a heading cut (shorten the length of the branch) or simply remove one of the two branches.
- Narrow crotches. This happens when a branch grows upwards instead of outwards. This is not conducive to good form for the tree; the ideal crotch angle is 45-55 degrees. Remove.
- Competing leader. This usually occurs near the top of the tree, when a branch is allowed to grow taller than the central leader. Such competition will cause the tree to grow unevenly, which makes the tree unstable. A heading cut is the solution to this problem.
We now feel well-armed with knowledge and practical skills in basic tree pruning as a result of attending this workshop. Our teacher was excellent and taught us a lot. We look forward to pruning our fruit trees, and having an improved harvest compared to last year, which from all accounts was a meager one at best.
Future fruity NOMs are ours!
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