Hi everybody, It's Christy from Gardenerd and we're here today to talk about pruning
your fruit trees because it is time while they are dormant to prune them for the coming
spring.
And I'm here with Jessika Mitchell, who has been on the Gardenerd team for a long time,
and she is an aspiring arborist.
She's going to show us how to prune fruit trees properly.
Now before we get started...we have a dog running around here.
It's pretty cool.
We're here with a lot of fruit trees.
We're standing in the midst of a pear.
So before we get started we're going to talk about the basics, which is: Dead, Diseased
and Disorderly.
Dead is pretty easy to identify, right?
If it's white or when it's brown when you cut a cross section, it's dead.
You should cut it off.
Diseased is also pretty obvious most of the time.
It's usually got sap flowing out of it or something like that.
You can cut that off as well.
Disorderly is where Jessika comes in.
And she's going to show us how to identify what disorderly looks like and how to get
rid of it, and shape your trees the way that you want.
One of the things that you have to do before you prune is clean your pruning shears because
diseases transfer from branch to branch and from tree to tree if you have any disease
or residues on your pruners, so make sure you dip your pruners in alcohol like this.
Open them up like that.
You can rub them down, and you can do that between cuts.
Don't drink that.
So on this pear tree we're going to look for anything that has crossing branches, anything
that's growing straight up through the interior of the tree.
We're going to remove those.
Here's a good example of that, here's another good one over here.
And here's a good example of a crossing branches.
When these branches grow and get wider, they're going to rub against each other and that can
actually cause some damage to the bark, and that can open up the interior of the tree,
expose the cambium layer, which is where all the cells divide.
It can actually allow pathogens like fungi and bacteria into the tree.
So you want to prune those out to avoid potential future problems like that.
All right, so when you are going to make a pruning cut you want to look for two parts
of the tree.
This is where the branch you are going to be pruning off comes in contact with the trunk.
So you want to look for the branch bark ridge, which you can see right here.
It's that ridge of bark that is growing, and the branch collar here.
So inside that area of the tree there is some special tissue where cells divide and that
is what allows the tree to close up that wound once you've cut into the trunk.
You can see a great example of that down here.
This is an old pruning cut that was made a year or two ago and you can see how the trunk
has actually started to close in and heal up that wound.
So it's very important when you make your cut that you do not cut into that area.
All right, so, we're going to prune out this branch that is growing straight up through
the interior of the tree and crossing with other branches in multiple places.
We're going to find the base where it connects to the other branch.
We're going to look for that branch collar and branch bark ridge that wrap around, and
we're going to make a clean cut.
Oh, when you do this it's very important to make sure that the blade side...you can see
the blade here...is closest to the trunk where the branch attaches.
That means that you can get a really nice, clean cut.
If you were to turn these guys around and cut this way, then you're going to have a
little stub left over at the end.
So I'm going to make sure my blade of my shears or my loppers are close to... look for the
branch bark ridge.. and then I'm going to make a cut.
If you make a cut that is not quite in the right position a couple things can happen.
It's going to prevent that cut from sealing over.
It can also, if there's wood left over, trigger what are called latent buds that are kind
of hidden all under the bark of the tree.
And epicormic shoot growth happens.
So if you're ever driving down the street and you see witch's broom, a whole bunch of
branches growing up out of the same spot on a tree, that was very likely a poor pruning
cut.
So I'm going to come in here and try and clean this up a little bit with this tiny little
saw.
And make sure your cut is nice and flush, just outside the branch bark ridge and branch
collar.
That should seal over nicely now.
While you're pruning it's important to walk around the tree and see what it looks like
from all directions because if you prune in two dimensions you're going to end up with
a funky, funky tree from other areas of the garden.
So walk all the way around and see where the branches fall, how they line up, and how it
looks.
And you'll end up with something that is well-rounded and attractive.
So, when you are going to remove a larger branch that has some weight on it you can
see this one right here comes up, goes out over there, you actually want to make three
cuts.
The first cut is going to be an undercut.
You don't have to go very far, just a little bit.
The idea here is that you're separating the bark, cutting into the bark so that when the
weight of this falls it will not strip the bark down the trunk of the tree, creating
a large wound.
So you always want to make the undercut first.
The next cut you're going to make is going to remove the weight of the branch.
You want to make that several inches outside of that undercut you just made.
So I'll do that now.
There we go, we've taken the weight out and now we can make our final cut, paying attention
to the branch bark ridge and branch collar.
There you go.