For the best results for espalier, the wall or fence that is chosen should face north and receive at least six hours of sunshine each day.
The topic of pruning, particularly fruit tree pruning, can seem a bit overwhelming or baffling to some. However, I like to use the saying: ‘Everything is easy, once you know how.’
July is the time to undertake winter pruning. Trees are pruned for many reasons. Often they are practical reasons with regard to how they impact our lives, such as to ensure a tree is not blocking light into a home, or when a branch may be protruding over a driveway or constantly dropping leaves into the spouting that we decide we no longer want to clean out.
For fruit trees, pruning is important to maximise fruit production and ease of harvest. For plants like roses, pruning is to maintain a compact bushy plant with a strong flowering display. If left unpruned, they tend to quickly become scraggly and sparse in their floral display.
Pruning roses and many deciduous trees and fruits is best completed during the winter months, when these plants are dormant and deciduous (will lose their leaves). The timing of pruning is part of having success, as well as making the right cuts.
Deciduous fruit trees, such as apple and pear trees, are best pruned during July, along with roses. Any earlier, in temperate climate areas particularly, and we risk getting a warm snap that makes the plant think it’s spring. The plant can then produce some new growth which risks getting walloped by a July frost.
Pruning is best undertaken on a day when you would hang your washing outside. Pruning on warm days is not only more pleasant, but significantly decreases the risk and spread of bacterial and fungus disease.
It is important to ensure cuts are “clean” - angled so as to not allow water to pool on the cut. I highly recommend the use of a pruning paste such as Grosafe Organic Prune’n’Paste or Yates PruneTec to seal the cut ends of branches, as this will minimise the risk of disease and insect invasions, which shorten the life of a tree.
Rose pruning is essential to reinvigorate the plant, promoting new growth and subsequent flower development. Many people struggle to know where to start when pruning. It is important to use the correct tools for pruning, as too small a tool will make any job difficult.
Use secateurs for small twiggy growth, loppers for small branches and a pruning saw for larger branches.
The first step is to simply remove any dead, diseased and badly insect-infested branches and carry on from there. Where prunings are diseased, it is important to burn the prunings or send them out with the rubbish rather than composting them. Thin, weak stems should be removed, with stronger ones retained.
Inward-facing and crossed branches should also be removed. The aim is to open up the centre of the plant to allow increased airflow, which reduces insect infestation and disease in the coming season.
The remaining branches should be reduced by up to three-quarters in the case of a bush or standard rose. Climbing roses should be pruned by about half and laterals shortened by two-thirds back towards a main leader.
For a good video giving a demonstration on rose pruning, check out: www.springvalegardencentre.co.nz/gardening-info/rose-pruning/.
Fruit tree pruning is primarily undertaken to allow sufficient light to penetrate into the canopy area to maximise fruit set, yield and fruit quality. Here are some pointers on pruning and training some fruits.
Almonds
Almonds are usually pruned and shaped as vase-shaped trees. Train the tree to three or four main limbs. Almonds mainly fruit on short spurs which bear for up to five years. Prune out about one-fifth of this wood each year.
If numerous suckers arise in the centre of the tree, they can be removed in summer. Keep a strong sucker and allow it to grow if a replacement limb is required. Trees that are old but still healthy can be stimulated into good growth by heavy pruning.
Apples and pears
Apple, pear and other pip fruit trees have been trained and pruned to various traditional systems for many years, including open centre/vase shape, central leader and espalier. Predominately, the central leader system is used.
Central leader system
With this system, a single central vertical trunk is selected to support the fruiting branches. The branches radiate from the main trunk and form a Christmas tree-type shape.
This allows maximum sunlight to get to branches, with the lowest branches being the longest and then branches higher up the trunk getting shorter. Apple and pear trees produce flowers and fruit mainly on two-year-old and older shoots and on short spurs produced on the older wood.
Trees need moderate pruning during the winter to stimulate growth for next season’s fruit and to maintain an open, well-balanced structure of the tree so that they crop well, the fruit is of good quality and the tree branches are strong enough to carry the weight of a heavy crop.
Open centre/vase form
To train a tree in this way, the centre leader must be removed, and then you must encourage three to five major limbs to develop. This vase shape allows good air movement through the tree and means a good amount of light can fall on the branches. This method of training is highly recommended for peach, apricot and nectarine trees.
Espalier
For the best results, the wall or fence that is chosen should face north and receive at least six hours of sunshine each day. The tree needs to be trained from planting with unwanted branches removed, depending on the shape you want to train your espalier to.
For a good video on creating an espalier, check out: www.springvalegardencentre.co.nz/gardening-info/espaliering-fruit-trees-video/.
Research by experts has identified that the best-flavoured and biggest fruits are produced in the largest quantities on branches that grow on an angle of between 30˚ and 120˚ from the vertical, with the best branch angle being 30˚ above the horizontal.
Apricots
Apricots bear fruit on short spurs that form on the previous year’s growth and on older spurs that can remain fruitful for up to three or four years. Pruning is aimed at maintaining the shape of the tree and removing any old unproductive wood.
Prune and train an apricot tree to a vase shape. Protection of pruning cuts is necessary for apricots to prevent the entry of silver leaf and bacterial blast infections, which can also attack plums and cherries.
Use a pruning paste over all cuts to assist healing and help prevent infection. Apricots and other stone fruit should not be pruned now but left until the summer. This will lessen the risk of silver leaf infection.
Cherries
Cherries fruit on spurs on two-year-old and older wood. Older trees should be pruned in summer to restrict vegetative growth and induce the formation of fruit buds.
As a winter prune, spurs may be thinned or shortened and the branch leaders pruned to shorten replacement laterals to reduce the tree height. Upright or over-vigorous growths should be removed or tied horizontally to balance tree growth as required.
Note that the vigorous growth of cherries may be inhibited by growing them as a fan espalier. As for apricots, some summer pruning is recommended to lessen the risk of silver leaf and stone fruit blast infections. It is also advisable to construct a frame and cover it with bird netting to protect the fruit for your own benefit.
Peaches and nectarines
Peaches and nectarines bear fruit only on the shoots produced the previous year. Pruning is carried out to encourage new growth and replacement shoots to maintain a balanced and open branch framework in the tree.
There are three different kinds of buds: plump fruit buds, small pointed growth buds and triple buds that have a plump central fruit bud with growth buds on either side.
On branches where extension growth is required, prune back to a growth bud or, failing this, to a triple bud. Summer pruning is recommended to lessen the risk of silver leaf infection.
Pruning and training fruit trees
Basically, the objectives of good pruning are to:
Note that every time a pruning cut is made, plant growth is stopped in one direction and encouraged in another. Always make cuts back to or just above some growing point – a fruit bud or strong lateral (side branch) – or to a main branch.
For a good video on winter fruit tree pruning, check out: www.springvalegardencentre.co.nz/gardening-info/winter-pruning-fruit-trees-video/.
There are also live pruning demonstrations coming up at Springvale Garden Centre, 18 Devon Rd, Whanganui:
For more gardening information, visit www.springvalegardencentre.co.nz.
Gareth Carter is the general manager of Springvale Garden Centre.
'We do our best but we are in extremely difficult times.'