By Carol Savonen, OSU Extension News
If you want to learn how to prune and train fruit trees the right way, now is the time to send for and study the Oregon State University Extension Service's "Training and Pruning Your Home Orchard." Or download it from OSU's Extension and Experiment Station publications website.
This 14-page illustrated guide explains and illustrates the basic principles of training and pruning apple, pear, sweet and sour cherries, peach, prune, plum, walnut, filbert and apricot trees.
The best time to prune fruit and nut trees is when all danger of winter freeze has passed, but before full bloom in the spring. Training fruit and nut trees helps to develop a stronger tree that can support heavy crops without limb breakage. It can also help bring a young tree into production at an early age.
Pruning helps keep trees at a manageable size, making them easier to maintain and harvest. Pruning also can increase fruit production and quality. Home orchardists can eliminate the need for propping up fruit-laden branches by pruning properly. The structural strength and branching patterns can be improved in young trees with good pruning techniques.
OSU Extension recommendations for pruning fruit and nut trees:
* At planting time, prune all fruit and nut trees to balance the tops with the roots.
* Prune young trees very lightly.
* Mature trees need more heavy pruning, especially if they've shown little growth.
* The top of a fruit tree needs more heavy pruning than the lower portion.
* Sweet cherry trees may be pruned in August when there's less danger of bacterial
infection.
* To increase fruit size and quality, thin out more shoots toward the end of a well-pruned
branch in a mature tree.
* To reduce the height in an excessively tall fruit or nut tree, cut whole limbs out of the top,
making cuts flush with the bark of a lower limb.
"Training and Pruning Your Home Orchard," PNW 400, is available by mail for $1 per copy. Send your request along with check or money order payable to OSU to: Publication Orders, Extension and Station Communications, OSU, 422 Kerr Administration, Corvallis, OR 97331-2119.
To locate it on the Web go to: eesc.orst.edu. Click on "Publications and Videos," then "Gardening," then "Fruits and Nuts."
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