Should you ‘hard' prune?

You may be able to stimulate a reluctant fruit tree to produce heavily by giving it a 'hard' prune, drastically reducing its size. When put under stress and ‘threatened,' it's believed trees put all their energy into reproduction (fruiting). However, the loss of a large mass of leaves and branches weakens the tree long-term. It will sprout fast-growing branches, which will be weak in windy conditions and be more susceptible to diseases, pests, and other stressors such as droughts.