A few weeks ago, we took a look at how to prune apple trees. Today we are going to look at how to prune stone fruit. Stone fruits are things like peaches, plums, and cherries. They grow differently than apples and require a completely different pruning strategy.
Before we get started pruning a peach tree, please take a minute to refer back to our apple pruning article if you are unsure how to make a proper pruning cut. Pruning to promote rapid healing of your cuts is extra important for stone fruits. They are highly susceptible to fungal diseases, and open wounds provide easy entrance.
Stone fruits should be pruned in early spring. They are probably about the last thing you should prune in your orchard. Pruning them too early can cause cold damage to the trees. It is better to prune them while they are flowering than it is to do so in January. Plus your pruning cuts heal more rapidly when the tree is actively growing.
Unlike apples which are pruned into a pyramidal shape, most stone fruits are pruned into an open vase shape.
They are trained into a sort of Y shaped tree with several main branches rather than one main shoot. We prune our peach trees and other stone fruits this way because they produce fruit on one year old wood. (Apples produce fruit on old wood.) So rather than cultivating old wood, we are trying to promote new growth. Good light throughout the canopy is also necessary to develop quality fruit. Pruning to an open center tree helps to distribute light evenly and increases the number of flower buds and quality of fruit.
If you are starting by planting a young tree, the first winter you ideally want to select 3 main branches. It can also be done with 2 if your tree doesn’t have 3 good branches. These branches will make the framework of your tree so should be evenly spaced around the trunk. If your tree has more branches, select the best 3 and remove the others.
These branches should have wide crotch angles so that they are strong and capable of supporting the load of fruit without breaking.
You want to remove shoots with poor crotch angles, water sprouts growing straight up, and branches growing towards the ground. You should also remove any suckers and dead or damaged wood, but leave as much of the small side shoots as possible on young trees.
The second winter, you should have a tree with the good scaffold branches selected in year one. If you did not have your 3 main scaffold branches with good crotch angles, select some this winter and remove all the other branches. Your scaffold branches can be trimmed back to 2-3 well placed side shoots if they have grown sufficiently.
Anything growing straight up or towards the ground should be removed. If you have V-crotches develop from same sized branches on your scaffold shoots, one of the 2 should be removed. Lastly, if the tip of your scaffold branches turns sharply upright at the ends, they can be removed to an outward facing bud to encourage horizontal growth. In the future you can remove the tips of upright scaffolds in the summer months.
Once you have created a strong framework for your tree, you will work towards maintaining a spreading, open growth habit in future years.
Start by removing any dead, or damaged wood. You should also look for and remove shoots that have brown rot cankers on them if possible. Completely remove water sprouts that are growing vertically, but retain shoots that grow horizontally.
You want to retain fruiting shoots that are 8-12” long but remove new shoots that are less than 6” long assuming your tree has plenty of new growth. Typically, there is no shortage of new growth or flower buds on young stone fruit trees. These short shoots won’t produce large fruit, so it is best to remove them. If the fruiting shoots on your tree are very dense you can thin out the shoots to only be every 6” or so apart.
Remember, these trees fruit on 1 year old wood, so your goal is to encourage growth of new wood.
As your tree gets older, you can thin shoots and make heading cuts as needed to maintain tree shape and to encourage new growth inside the tree. Heading cuts are cuts made partially down a branch rather than removing the entire thing.
As your trees get older, they will inevitably get woodier and less productive. The fruiting wood will move further and further out the canopy making the trees more prone to breaking. You should only expect a peach tree to be productive for about 15 years. However, if your tree is still healthy, and production is slowing down you can try to prune it harshly. Cut back to side shoots facing good directions in 3 year old wood to encourage new growth. You will reduce your crop the following year, but may increase the longevity and productivity of the tree by doing so.
We hope this helps you keep your stone fruits productive. Because you are pruning for new growth, they are very forgiving and a great place to dip you toes into the orchard pruning water.
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