Pruning fruit trees at Government House

16-7-09

Activities: Todays task was to meet at government house for some serious fruit tree pruning.

The trees I pruned were apples and apricots.

It is a good idea to remove any branches that cross over onto other branches and one that might hinder fruit growth from another branch.

The first thing to do was look at the tree (in this case apple) and do the 3 Ds (dead, damaged, dying and diseased). Also it is good to stand back and look at the trees and visualise what it might look like after it has been pruned.

Once the 3Ds had been removed the next step was to prune back the larger branches to lateral branches. New seasons growth was pruned back and this would also help lateral growth. This would also help the growth of the new spurs the following year.

They were pruned back to just above a bud. Please note that these trees were quite old and were in desperate need of pruning.

The other trees I pruned were peaches and nectarines. After doing the first basic steps like the apple trees it was time to prune last seasons laterals. Any laterals that were crowding the tree were cut back to 2 buds at the beginning of the branch. Also some of the branches had triple buds some these were pruned back to these buds. You get 2 buds for flowering and 1 bud would form the new lateral. Make sure that the bud that is going to be the new lateral is going to grow out in the right direction (eg you dont want it growing in towards the centre of the plant ).

PPE. Saftey glasses, gloves

Tools: ladder, secauteers.

OH&S: Falling off ladder, secuateers.