I am with Darren Minter that manages 100 ha of citrus in the Sunraysia region and he has
been producing good-quality yields of good-quality fruit over the seasons and pruning is one
of his main practices, so Darren why do you prune?
For better packouts, better quality fruit, easier picking to replace the tree new growth
so to get more fruit internally inside the tree and bring the tree down in height which
in turn gives me a better spray application, so I can spray quicker and faster and get
a better job.
So Darren could you please describe your pruning strategy?
My pruning strategy has evolved from the kiss method, keep it simple.
We use a lot of chunk pruning so for example I come into the tree here, we wanted access
because it was a blanket of impenetrable canopy.
So we came in with a chainsaw and cut from the ground, like here off the tree and cut
up high so that we had a hole no more than 25% of the tree cut away so the light would
come in.
So why 25%?
25%, if you do any more you get a lot more water shoots, where here you see no water
shoots, where here you see nice fruitable timber that is getting better and better every
year.
This limb would have nearly been dead but now it has come back to life with fruit on
it, this cut was done five years ago.
It is a new cut.
So we do the first quarter this side, always usually on the east side of the tree, here
we couldn't do east so it is north-east, and whenever we do a cut it's always on the north
east so we can get light into it.
That's the first years of pruning, we only do that, and what I mean is you walk in swing
a chainsaw and walk out.
Cost of no more than a dollar, two dollars tops.
And that's the first prune.
The second year we moved over to the other side of the tree.
This tree here had a hole cut into it a while ago, like a 25% cut I was explaining before,
all the limbs move around and the hole disappears.
This is the second year cut we did on these trees very similar to the first year, we walked
in again just getting straight access in cutting a hole in one side of the tree.
Cut here cut down here and we would have cut one up a bit higher to make the same hole,
again no more than 25% or less.
This is now explaining the third year, the third year we started to go more for the tops
to get more light in so you can see limbs cut from here and over here so we had a hole
at the centre, as you can see the closing in.
So to move onto the fourth year we start dropping the tree down, we start cutting down here
and in the fifth year we will cut over here.
So we will literarily bring the tree height down and maintain the level and as you can
see the fruit inside the tree already is quite good.
The main reason we work these little cuts is because it's all on the ground, no pole
saws, all just handheld chainsaws.
Here is a patch of older trees that we have had done, they are not as advanced as the
ones I showed you earlier.
These trees were done with a hole in exactly where the camera is now, is all filled in
and we will pan around the camera later to show you that.
We have done the holes this way we have done the hole that way, we have done a little bit
in the centre up in here and within 12 months it is fully covered.
So this year we would take out the limb here that is going right up the centre and hopefully
the affordable shoots will blanket the bark so it does not sunburn.
Again one big cut about 40 mm in size here, or 50 mm and walk away, that's enough.
As you'll see the limbs have moved around and the fruit is coming through the tree and
the fruit is in a wider sparse through the tree and with us pulling that limb out and
the movement of these limbs to fill the holes in all of this deadwood as you can see here
has gone, we haven't got any more.
The reason I do the sides first instead of the tops, is that it is a great one to cut
out but then how do you pull it out, that's the expensive part?
These again are only a one dollar cut, the minute I cut this one out I got somewhere
to drag it out.