A lot of you folks have a real issue with pruning fruit trees, especially if
you're trying to gain a shape or something like that.
Now I did an episode on pruning in the winter, on how to control the growth of
the tree and everything else. As you can see behind me these are Cordon's
that we planted around about 18 months ago, as a single year plant and as you
can see they've gone absolutely nuts, and that was because we pruned them in the
winter. In this episode we're going to talk about winter and summer pruning and
we're going to talk about how best to get these trees to fruit much more than
they already are, and that's coming up after this.
Welcome back to UK Here We Grow I'm Tony O'Neill and if this is your
first time here consider hitting that subscribe button for more great videos
like this and don't forget to click the bell icon as well to be notified every
time we put up a new one of these videos. So fruit trees guys, pruning fruit trees
isn't difficult but I'm finding a lot of people are sending me questions every
single year saying or I'm having real issues and you know I'm afraid of what I am
cutting off and not sure what to cut off. Well, there's two methods for pruning
there's winter pruning and this summer pruning. Now, winter pruning if you prune
in the winter that gives you all of this growth as you can see here there's loads
and loads and loads of growth, now, what that does it makes the tree stronger it
gets the shape you want much quicker and it's really good for designing shapes of
trees so, in this instance cordons or espalier like we have further down. But
these trees like I said are only about 18 months old and last winter we pruned
them really hard and it gave us all of this top growth here. Now, summer pruning
which is now we need the time to do it which is August second week in August
and what we need to do for this now is we need to get control back, and as you
can see in this one here we've done a really good job we've got that shape we
want it goes right to the top of the cable and we've got a fantastic shape
ready for next year. Now next year this actual cordon here is going to be
plastered in fruit, so how do we get that fruit. Well. as you can see I've got a
couple of apples already on here in fact with some really good ones on here. But,
and that was just from last year's pruning but this year what we need to do
is create what's known as fruiting spurs and they come from when we prune back all of
this top growth here, now fruiting spurs are little
stems if you like that come off the main trunk of the tree and the fruit then
grow on that next year. Now, you have to have a variety which is known as spur
fruiting variety and there are hundreds and hundreds of varieties of Apple pears
plums whatever you fancy, okay? And they can all be trained in the in Cordon's
espaliers fans on whatever you have. Now it isn't hard guys
a lot of people worry that they're taking off too much and that's one of
the biggest problems that a lot of people have is the next year they won't
get any fruit because they've taken off too much.
So in general guys, we're pruning back to about an inch in length
we're always pruning back to an outward facing bud and that outward facing bud
is going to then grow for next year what this does it creates some fruiting wood
that the plant will fruit on next year.
Now this one that we've done here, will fruit Loads next year, as you can see
they are outward facing fruiting buds all the way down this cordon branch
and next year you're gonna see that absolutely jam-packed with fruit. This
one we need to get on with, but, I'm gonna show you how we get in you know as you
can see we're coming in nice and close we're looking for an outward facing bud
and then we're just gonna prune off down to about an inch. Inch and a half on the
fruiting wood and this is what's going to give us a shape we're going to
continue all the way up the branch. Now this tree in particular is really thick
branches all over the place but we've got some really good apples on here as
well. So we're going to leave those apples and we're going to prune down to
here to an outward facing bud and we are going to cut at an angle on the
outward facing bud and that will become next year's spurs.
We're literally just gonna go around the tree don't be afraid to cut it just
cut it at a slight angle so the rain runs off, and that will leave our
fruiting spurs for next year and when you get going on this guy's that one's
okay when you get going on this it doesn't take long at all as you can see
I'm really going through it so this one I'm just gonna see if I can get in it
cut at an angle. I need to cut more of an angle on this one looks it's quite flat
the rain will get in there so I'm just gonna come up above the Apple and do it
that way you really need a good sharp pair of secateurs and these ones aren't
the best but they will do for now. So, again all we're doing is cutting back to
that fruiting spur this is going to give us the shape that we require.
I'm gonna continue doing this tree, here guys. Just so you can see and then we're
gonna finish up this video. As you can see we've just done three trees here
we've cut them all back to these nice little stems and it didn't take no
time at all. Some of these now we will tie in and reshape get them flatter again
we've cut off some really sizable branches, and let me show you what I'm
saying about that. I mean look at this branch
This is summers, one summers growth it is absolutely it's bigger than my finger my
thumb is about the same thickness as this branch. Now that that's gone that's
gonna create a lovely fruiting spur ready for next year and these cordons
are gonna be absolutely plastered in fruit next year.
Just like these espalier's are that you can't quite see around here, but I'll
give you a little look at those in a moment. So guys I'm gonna get on with the
rest of these it's not difficult all I gotta do is remember three principles
guys summer fruiting gives you fruiting spurs for next year. Winter pruning
gives you growth for next year now we've got our cordon's to the height we need
we're not gonna have to do any winter pruning on these it's just all be summer.
The other tip you need to remember is remember to leave a good inch of the
hardwood branch which will become your new fruiting spur so next year you will
get plenty and plenty of fruit. okay? I'm gonna get on with the rest of these I
hope that this episode was of interest to you guys and I hope that it's cleared
up all of the issues you have. Question of the day. How many of you grow in
cordon or espalier fruit? do you prune the same way? put all of your comments
down in the box below. I'd really be interested to see how you're doing it
and what varieties you're actually growing. So there you have it guys,
pruning fruit trees, it's not hard, it's not rocket science. All you need to do is
get out there and cut away you can do it really really quickly. Don't forget guys
Click that subscribe button and the bell notification to be told every time that
we put up a new video such as this I'm Tony O'Neill
this is UK Here We Grow and remember You Reap What You Sow! I'll see you in the
next one. Bye, Bye.