Pruning fruit is often thought of as a winter job but it should be avoided during very cold weather as this can lead to dieback. By the same token, not all fruits should be pruned during the winter e.g. summer-fruiting raspberries, along with blackcurrants and hybrids between the two (such as Tayberries), should be pruned straight after fruiting. This allows the new canes to ripen better before growth stops.
Currants and gooseberries are best dealt with as soon as the leaves have fallen or in spring shortly before growth starts. There's no unbendable rule about this though – it's just that they react better.
Plums, cherries and other stone fruits must be pruned during the growing season to reduce the risk of infection by the silver leaf fungal disease, which is spread by winter spores.
That more or less leaves apple and pears. We grow more apples both commercially and in the garden than any other fruit. The apple, unlike the Pear, is completely at home in this country. There are two main groups for the gardener to choose from - the dessert (eating) varieties and the culinary (cooking) varieties.
Pears are obviously closely related to Apples and the same basic rules of pruning apply. Planting techniques are similar and pest and diseases can move from one to the other. There are some important differences, however, the main one being that Pears need more sun than Apples and they hate cold easterly winds. They are also more prone to frost and can be slower to come into fruit sometimes from four to eight years.
It is therefore important to prune apple and pears to ensure maximum yields.
Young Trees
Young trees and trained trees need rather different and specific treatment. During the first four years of a fruit tree it is important to create a basic framework which will help to ensure good cropping in later years. For bushes and standards this calls for fairly severe cutting back of the branches in order to produce an open -centred and freely branched tree. In addition poor quality wood such as weak twigs, dead or badly diseased shoots must be removed.
ESTABLISHED TREES
Normally traditionally shaped trees respond perfectly well to what is called the 'regulated' system of pruning. This involves making comparatively small number of large cuts with a pruning saw rather than snipping about here and there with secateurs.
The branches that must be pruned out are those which are too high, too low, too spreading, crossing over the centre of the tree or simply causing overcrowding. To this list must be added any material that is dead, dying or badly diseased.
Treat saw cuts with a fungicidal paint such as Vitex 'Seal n Heal' to exclude fungal diseases. This is a topic that has had a certain amount of airing in recent years.
Some tree experts are of the opinion that cuts heal better and quicker if they are left pared but untreated. Some also attribute to trees the ability to produce anti-bodies that will protect the wood in the region of the cut.
Whatever argument you tend to agree with I personally feel that a cut 15cms. (6ins.) or larger will benefit from an application of a fungicidal paint, particularly in our very damp, warm weather where fungi can breed very quickly.
It is also worth mentioning fungal canker of apple and pear trees at this point as it can be a serious problem in poorly-drained soils. The fungus eats away the bark and wood of the tree and causes lesions (wounds) to form that can, if untreated, encircle a branch or even a trunk and kill the growth above it. If the wound has reached round a branch, that branch should be cut back to clean (unstained) wood. The wounds are then painted with a fungicide to further reduce infection.
Canker control can take place at the same time as pruning.
