Winter pruning a fruit tree

Winter in the Orchard

Winter pruning of apples and pears can be done between leaf fall (around the end of October) and bud burst (around early March). They can also be pruned in summer, but that's just to shorten vigorous new growth. The purposes of winter pruning are to:

• keep growth in check
• improve shape
• open up the centre of the tree and allow light in to ripen the fruit
• ensure good air flow, reducing risk of disease.

Now in early March, it's our last chance to winter prune apples and pears, and I'm going to show you how to harness this skill to keep your trees healthy and productive.

Winter pruning of apples and pears can be done between leaf fall (around the end of October) and bud burst (around early March). They can also be pruned in summer, but that's just to shorten vigorous new growth. The purposes of winter pruning are to:

• keep growth in check
• improve shape
• open up the centre of the tree and allow light in to ripen the fruit
• ensure good air flow, reducing risk of disease.

What You'll Need

• Secateurs for thinner stems
• Loppers for thicker stems
• Folding saw for branches
• A stable ladder - tripod ladders are light and easy to use, with adjustable legs that give stability on uneven ground
• Hortisept or Jeyes Fluid (find in your local DIY store or supermarket) to disinfect your tools between trees

Preparing to Prune

• Ensure your tools are clean and sharp.
• Avoid windy days for ladder work, and if you don't feel confident, have someone hold the ladder.
• Walk around the tree to plan your pruning before you start:
• look at the tree and which stems you might want to prune
• think about overall shape and balance
• notice where shoots are dead or damaged, crossing, or going too low.

Cutting Stems Going Into the Centre of the Tree

1. Remove all inwards-facing shoots going into the centre of the tree, to open this up.
2. Remove 20% of the remaining shoots, taking them right back to their point of origin.

• This is enough to allow light in but not trigger a mass of new shoots.
• Keep stepping back and looking at the overall shape. Be cautious at first - you can always come back and take more off to thin out further at the end.

1. Look for crowding - if lots of shoots are coming from one place, leave the best one (well-placed and healthy).

Allowing More Light Into the Centre of the Tree

• We open up the centre of the tree for light, but also to direct energy into fewer shoots, to encourage them to produce fruiting spurs.
• Shorten the remaining shoots by a quarter to a third. Cut just above an outwards-facing bud, as the new shoot will grow in the direction the bud is facing.
• If stems come from the same point, vary the heights slightly for a dynamic look.
• Take out any crossing stems, and address any crowding by thinning out stems.
• Don't rush - keep on looking, be patient and work your way round carefully

Move Around the Tree to Keep Pruning

• Fruit develops from the short stems with swollen buds (fruiting spurs). This is where you want light to reach. Avoid pruning these off.
• Remove any damaged stems, as these can allow infection. Either take it back to a strong stem (at least a third of the width of the one you're removing), or take it out completely.
• Once you've taken out everything that feels right, check the tree feels balanced - prevailing winds and sun can lead to more branches and shoots on one side, causing the overall shape to lean. Take out where necessary to maintain the balanced feel.
• If you need to remove a larger, heavier branch, do it in two stages to avoid tearing:

1. An initial cut that removes most of the branch, leaving a foot or so. Cut a third of the way through from the far side, then cut through from the close side to meet it.
2. A clean, straight final cut that leaves a slight collar. Slow down and use the full length of the blade as you get towards the end of the cut.

Which Trees to Prune

• When you first plant an apple, do formative pruning, but you won't need to prune to open up the shape until about five years later. Just remove anything dead or crossing.
• After five years, prune a little every year, remembering the 20% overall removal.
• If you don't have the time or confidence to prune apples and pears, it's not absolutely necessary - you'll have a natural-looking tree that still blossoms and fruits.

Freestanding vs. Trained Trees

• For trained forms such as espaliers or cordons, pruning is key. It's important to get the spacing just right and make cuts that will make the right stems grow.
• As well as being pruned, espalier stems need to be trained into shape, by pulling them down gradually to the horizontal wires.
• Bend them down to 45 degrees one year and down to horizontal the next.
• If you've nothing to tie them to, you can use weights.

What to Do With Your Prunings

• Bundle or pile them up at the back of borders or in wilder areas to create wildlife habitat.
• Use them to make a dead hedge, a design feature that provides both shelter and habitat.
• Shred and compost them to recycle the nutrients back into the garden.
• Shred and use as a mulch to suppress weeds and retain moisture.
• If none of these are possible, add to your council green waste collection. While some commercial orchards burn prunings to ward off frosts, this isn't environmentally friendly and puts wildlife at risk.

Further Reading

• RHS guide to winter pruning apples and pears
• RHS guides to starting an espalier and pruning and training an existing espalier

Plant Directory

Malus domestica cultivars

Apples

Hardy deciduous trees

Rosaceae

Pyrus communis cultivars

Pears

Deciduous trees

Rosaceae

Pyrus communis 'Beurré Hardy'

Pear 'Beurré Hardy'

Hardy deciduous tree

Rosaceae

Glossary

Canker

A fungal disease causing disfiguring and sunken patches of dead bark on the branches of apple and some other trees. Infections often begin at wounds or buds.

Cordon

A space-saving way to grow a fruit tree, in which the tree is trained to grow as a single main stem, often on a diagonal against a wall, with very short side branches that bear fruiting spurs.

Espalier

A tree that is trained flat against a support, such as a fence, with a central vertical stem and several tiers of horizontal branches (arms) coming off the main trunk.

Hortisept

A specially formulated horticultural disinfectant that kills bacteria, fungi and viruses while being sensitive to the environment and the user. It is commonly used to disinfect tools while pruning to prevent the spread of disease from one plant to the next.

Jeyes Fluid

A brand of concentrated multi-purpose disinfectant and cleaner for outdoor use.

Maiden whip

A one-year-old tree with a single, straight, unbranched stem.

Spur

A short side shoot, like a compressed stem and usually less than 6 inches long, that produces a tree's fruiting buds.

Spur-bearing

Apple and pear trees that produce fruit buds on two-year-old wood, and fruiting spurs (short, branched shoots) on the older wood. This means fruit is distributed more evenly along the main branches compared to tip-bearing trees and gives the tree a tidy and compact appearance. The majority of cultivars are spur-bearing.

Tip-bearing

Apple and pear trees that produce very few spurs - instead, fruit buds are found at the tips of long shoots produced the previous year. The tree looks less tidy than spur-bearer and the branches look sparse without spurs. Tip-bearers are relatively uncommon.