Pruning Fruit Trees

[ducks4you]

Sometimes I am such a wimp. Yes, I experiment and try new gardening plants and methods, but I need advice about pruning my fruit trees. I KNOW how important it is. I KNOW that I'm wearing out my old apple and peach trees bc they're overgrown. I KNOW that I need to prune late winter/early Spring, which is late February, early March where I live. I really wanna take a hacksaw and chainsaw to whole branches, but I don't want to kill them all.
Even AFTER I have read a 1970's textbook on orchards, with chapters for every fruit tree and vine and bush that I own, I still need some helps to prune.
I own (4) apple, (2) pear, (1) peach and (2) cherry trees. I own grape vines and blackberries.
If you have ANY good advice, or websites with pictures, or book suggestions, I would REALLY appreciate it. I PROMISE to log pictures of my pruning on this thread, so you can correct me if I'm wrong.
Thanks, in advance.

 

[so lucky]

I wanna see too!

 

[Smart Red]

Pruning orchard trees was one of the few really useful things DH and I learned during our Master Gardeners' class. Not everyone had that part of the course since it was held on a Saturday rather than our usual Thursday evening.

The first thing we learned was to put aside fear that we'd harm the trees. Tain't gonna happen unless you start 'pruning' the trunk to ground level!

Look over the whole tree. First cuts are any broken or dead branches. Then cut out any branches that cross and rub against each other. You can remove any branches that meet the main trunk at a very acute angle since these are the weakest joints. (The strongest branch to trunk angle is as close to a 90 degree angle as possible.) Finally, cut any 'water sprouts' or stems that grow straight up.

The general rule, however is to not prune more than 1/3 of a tree (or shrub) in any one year so correcting years of mis-management may take a few years - not to worry.

Water sprouts - those small branches that grow straight up - do not produce fruit so removing them is almost always the proper option. However, if a side of your tree is bare due to prior damage, a water sprout can be trained to grow sideways and will eventually produce fruit and fill in the bare side. I can tell you how to do that if needed.

Another 'tip' - learned by experience rather than Prune'n School - is that once you cut a water sprout, you can expect two more to grow in its place. To prevent this, I cut the branch off flush and then dig into the bark a bit where the sprout started. Thus removing the base from which new sprouts would grow.

We 'trained' by revamping a real neglected orchard. Oh, the huge branches we were ordered to remove! It was heartbreaking at first. Now, pruning my own orchard is totally non-threatening and easy-peasy.

Books? I do have a 1970-ish pruning book of my own, but nothing works as well as hands on training.

Good luck!

Love, Smart Red

ps-- I have read several books on proper pruning of grapes and still can't get them right. I keep asking DH to take a weekend drive to some nearby vinyard. I am a visual, hands-on learner and here the books just don't seem to work.

 

[Nyboy]

Don"t be afraid to prune fruit trees. Growing up my father used to butcher apple, pear and cherry trees every couple of years. The trees always lived.

 

[ducks4you]

THANK YOU Smart Red and Nyboy!!!
This is EXACTALLY what I needed!!
I know a little bit, already, regarding the dead branches, and the ones that cross. I'm glad to hear about no more than 1/3 bc I had read from one source no more than 1/10th.
Ironically, the grape vines are my least pruning problem. Let me bring in, scan and send you the advice I have in one of my books about pruning grape vines. I know that it's confusing to try to pick the pencil-width vines. I have one book that repeats the advice about picking 4 branches from the main vine and eliminating the others. I have 5 mature grapes. I have pruned the fruiting vines and took most of one year's harvest away. Good news--you can prune your grapes after the leaves start budding, so you can identify last year's growth. I've done THAT before, too. I even had a great harvest AFTER 2 late season freezes this Spring, and many local experts told us that no one would GET grapes this year. Most of the leaves turned brown and withered, but the vines replaced them with new ones AND with new fruits.
Go figure.
When I saw a program recently that said not pruning wears out the trees, I REALLY had a wake up call. Two of my trees are ??? years old, with big, thick trunks. It would be a real pain and shame to lose them bc of neglect.
ANYWAY, I'm ready to start and take my reciprocating saw and chain saw out this weekend to chop the dead branches. Do you recommend sawing past the dead wood and just into the green?

 

[thistlebloom]

Ducks, I'm going to jump in here and suggest that you wait for late, late, winter /early spring to do your pruning. Your cuts will heal better.
Pruning at this time of year could lead to tissue damage that won't regrow due to winter freezing.

Oh, I just read your post again and I see your talking about cutting the dead wood off. I would still wait until earliest spring. You should cut the dead wood back into live tissue.

 

[ducks4you]

Thanks, thistlebloom. I'm gonna take a chance and cut on my oldest apple tree this weekend. I have a book--it was a gift--on fruit trees that was a published textbook, and it has a picture of an apple tree with 3 main branches ALL broken off from the weight of the limbs. My oldest apple tree has one limb starting to crack, and a lot of dead wood on it, plus 2 other limbs with big problems. I guess I'm quoting Dickens to say that if it wants to start dying, it should be quick about it. I think I'll cut just into the live wood, but finish the cuts at the trunk in early March. If I lose this tree I still have others, but if it decides to die I'll see some building damage.
Still, good food for thought. I'll report back with pictures next week. AND, I think I'll wait to cut the live wood in the Spring, too.