How To Prune Young Fruit Trees - Peach, Apple, Fig and more, by Urban Farmstead on YouTube. 24 min 40 s.
- Video length
- 24 min 40 s
- Time to do it
- 20 minutes per tree
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 9
What you need
Steps
Prune in late winter, while the tree is still dormant and before the buds swell. Pick a dry day when the temperature is above freezing so the cuts seal cleanly.
Wipe the blades of your pruners and loppers with rubbing alcohol before you start. Clean them again between trees so you don't spread disease.
Stand back and study the tree. Choose 3 or 4 strong branches spaced evenly around the trunk with wide, open angles, and keep these as your main scaffolds.
Cut out dead, broken and diseased wood first, cutting back to healthy wood or the trunk. Leave stubs no longer than about 1 cm.
Remove branches that rub against each other, cross through the middle, or shoot straight up from the trunk. Cut them flush at the branch collar, not into the trunk.
Shorten the main limbs by about a quarter of their length to encourage side shoots. Make each cut just above an outward-facing bud, angled away from it.
Prune peaches and other stone fruit lightly. They fruit on one-year-old wood, so leave plenty of young shoots instead of cutting them all back.
Trim figs only lightly, removing crossing, damaged or crowded growth. Fig trees fruit on new wood each year, so heavy cutting costs you fruit.
Rake up the prunings, fallen leaves and old fruit from around the base and bin them. This removes overwintering pests and disease spores.
Tips and common mistakes
Never take off more than about a third of the canopy in a single winter, or the tree will push weak, leafy growth.
Use sharp bypass pruners rather than anvil pruners, which crush the bark and slow healing.
Skip wound paint on small cuts. A clean, angled cut seals itself faster.
Wear gloves and safety glasses, and keep your face clear of springy branches under tension.
Questions
When is the best time to prune a young fruit tree?
Late winter, while the tree is dormant and before buds open. Avoid pruning in autumn, because new growth may not harden off before frost.
Should I prune a fruit tree in its first year?
Yes, but lightly. A few shaping cuts now build a strong frame of branches that will carry fruit later.
Do peach and fig trees need different pruning from apple?
The method is similar, but go gentler on peach because it fruits on last year's shoots. Figs also fruit on new growth, so remove only crowded or damaged wood.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
