Pruning deciduous fruit trees in summer

Most people in Lower Hutt prune deciduous fruit trees in winter. Makes sense because the trees are dormant and sans leaves so it’s easier to see the plant’s structure.

However it’s a good idea to give your trees, including espaliers, a summer prune too. Why? Prune in winter for growth, summer for fruit and to control excessive growth. Additionally it’s a good idea to prune stonefruit like plums after fruiting towards the end of summer to avoid a disease called Silverleaf.

So winter is when you make the big structural cuts, summer’s more about detail pruning and taking off upright, vertical growth to limit the height of trees and put the energy into the more horizontal growing branches where the fruit is produced. Also removing any obvious dead, damaged or diseased growth and smaller branches that are crossing others or growing back towards the main stem.

How to summer prune? Depends on the type of tree and variety. This is where I’ll direct you to YouTube where there are some excellent videos. However, for example, I’ve just pruned an espalier pear. Took all the vertical growing branches back to one set of leaves, watershoots back to the trunk or main branch and the lateral growing branches to 5-6 leaves from the the base of the shoot, leaving 10-15 cm of new growth.

I also cut back the horizontal branches on a second-year plum that has grown massively this season by about a third to control growth and get more fruit next year. Took the terminal buds off the vertical growing branches and trunk of a pear too. It gets windy where I am and I don’t want the tree to get too too heavy or tall.

Hope that helps. Happy summer pruning!