Why Is Fruit Tree Pruning a Necessity?
The primary reason for pruning fruit trees as opposed to other
trees is quite simple. Other trees are pruned in order to promote health and
beauty. Fruit trees are pruned to develop those characteristics, as well as the
most optimized structure for growing large, healthy fruit. Trees that are not
pruned regularly will create too much foliage resulting in lack of sunlight for
growing fruit as well as growing fruit branches. For the owner, this can
present great problems. Trees with only enough access to sunlight at the top
will only bare ripe fruit at the top. This can be incredibly difficult for
owners to remove.
By pruning your tree you can keep your tree short enough that
removing fruit is not a trial. Additionally, shorter trees receive more
sunlight by allowing more openings for piercing sunlight through branches. Pruning will also help to prevent disease from
infecting your fruits.
Do you have sick tree that used to bare healthy fruit? The telltale
sign of a dead tree is a hollow trunk. These older trees as long as they are
not hollow can still be brought back to fruit baring status. The first step is
remove and dead limbs, branches, and sprouts for the first 9 months to a year
of growth. As the tree begins to recover pruning the tree will help massively
to encourage positive growth induced by more sunlight.