Pruning New Fruit Trees

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could give me a correct answer.

This Autumn / Spring I have planted about 20 fruit trees in a ne largish garden - apple, pear, plum, cherry, apricot, peach, nectarine.

Have read several books about pruning which all state to cut bac branches by either a third or half (depending which book you read) However, as the new trees have all different length primary branches this would look rather odd with some smaller / larger than others !

What I want to know is approx how far in length from the main trun should the primary branches be, as this would seem an easier method Cannot seem to find this information anywhere. Does this differ wit fruit tree type?

Thanks for your time..

-- Markie

You may be missinterpreting what you are reading. What they are saying is that you should never prune more than a third (a half would probably be too much) on a tree, in any given season. It can shock the tree too much.

I would not prune first year planted fruit trees, unless it is absolutely necessary. Once they are past the first year, they will be strong enough to take reasonable pruning. After that first year, is the time to do things

more radically, like cutting off competing branches to select a single leader, etc.

This is kind of your choice. If you want more room for things like your lawn mower to maneuver around, you would let the trunk get higher.

I think the style of pruning should be about the same for all fruit trees. Some fruit trees, like pears will tend to grow more columnar. Others will weep, etc. So don't expect any uniformity between varieties.

Sherwin