A path to perfect pruning

A bumper fruit harvest will be all the more likely next year if you start making the right preparations now

ost fruit bushes and trees have now lost their leaves and are completely dormant so this is a perfect time for some winter pruning.

A frosty day or a covering of snow on the ground is the most ideal situation since this will help to prevent any surface soil damage.

APPLES AND PEARS

Remove branches that are too close to ground level after being weighed down with heavy crops and thin out shoots to keep the centre of the trees open for good air and light circulation.

Remove any over-vigorous shoots growing straight upwards and cut back a few others by about a third to maintain a well-balanced shape and encourage fruiting spurs.

Sometimes a mature pear tree can produce too many spurs, resulting in a massive crop of smaller pears, so thin these out if necessary.

With some forms of apple trees growth is controlled by spur pruning, such as with espaliers, fan trained trees, columnar forms and stepovers.

Growth is pruned in late summer cutting back side shoots in half.

These are then further pruned to a few buds in winter to encourage the formation of fruiting spurs.

PLUMS

Do not prune these in winter or they may be liable to infection from silver leaf fungus disease. Wait until spring for young trees and mid-summer for older mature trees.

BLACKCURRANTS

Try to retain and encourage strong young shoots by removing some old wood every year.

Young shoots will usually grow lower down on the older fruiting branches so cut these back to the young shoots.

Any branches that were bent over with heavy crops should be removed as the fruit on these is liable to be splashed with soil when it rains.

RED AND WHITECURRANTS

These fruit on spurs were established on older branches so retain about 10 older branches growing from the crown.

Cut all young shoots back by half in the summer, then in winter cut back to just a few buds.

Replace older branches over the years from new shoots growing from the crown.

A frosty day or a covering of snow on the ground is the most ideal situation for winter pruning

GOOSEBERRIES

These are best grown on a single clear stem to keep fruiting wood well above ground level so prune out all low growing shoots, as well as some in the centre of the bush, otherwise it can get too crowded, making picking a nightmare.

Cut back very long shoots to encourage fruiting spurs.

RASPBERRIES

Summer fruiting raspberries fruit on 6ft tall shoots grown the previous year so retain these and remove last summer’s fruiting shoots to ground level.

Thin out excessive growth to allow spacing of about 4in between shoots after tying in to the top wire with a running knot.

Autumn fruiting raspberries are easier to manage as they fruit on shoots produced in the same year so everything gets cut to ground level as soon as fruiting has stopped in early winter.

BRAMBLES

Blackberries are like summer raspberries that fruit on long shoots produced the previous year.

Depending on variety these shoots could be very long so they are best trained along wires fixed to a fence or wall or other free standing permanent solid structure.

Remove all of the old shoots that have fruited and tie in the new young canes to replace them.

Pictures: John Stoa.