Pruning, yes it's time

pistolknight · **Posted:** Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:41 pm

Nice weather today so got into some pruning, Pruned the Apricot, Plum, Plumcot, Cherry, Apple, Peach trees and the hand
Lesson 1 the pruning saw is very sharp so keep spare hand out the way :help:

Lesson 2 Don't show missus the cut :swear:

Lesson 3 Let her do the pruning because she knows everything :dunno:

I must admit I know sweet FA about pruning but found some very useful Video's on you tube, they didn't gash their hand though :confused:

Also have a mini yates Greenhouse so am going to plant some summer Veggies for the Aquaponics, mainly chilli and Tomato's

Snags · **Joined:** Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:52 pm **Posts:** 234

Have you eaten a plumcot yet?
Is it more plum or Apricot?

With pruning I just go into a Zen like trance.
Been doing it for years and over hundreds of trees.
I can almost do it with my eyes closed.

pistolknight · **Posted:** Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:56 pm

Not yet snags, only went in last year, is between the plum and Apricot so should get some good pollination

Faye · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 4:31 pm

Be warned!
Reading this thread reminded me of a story I tried to forget. Many years ago when Eddy was preparing a trip to the tip he was out in the garden and I was in the house. One of the children came inside and I asked what dad was doing. They replied " he's loading the trailer with the prunings." I was a little bewildered and asked "What prunings?" knowing that there was nothing that should be pruned. The answer was "the almond tree" NO, You're kidding! I exclaimed and bolted out the front the see the trunk left and the prunings covered with almond blossom on the trailer. :bash:

I could have cried. When I told the story to others, friends would say, well what was he doing in your garden anyway? hehehe He just took it upon himself, quite out of the blue, :dunno:

Lesson to others - blossom preceeds fruit. We would have had a nice crop of almonds that year.

earthbound · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:28 pm

Plumcots taste just like plums.. Same texture, same flavour, same everything...

Big_Dave · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2010 9:07 pm

I know Sweet FA about pruning,it wasnt until my father recently visited that I was instructed on how to prune my Mullberry and Guava Saplings.

chillidude · **Posted:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:39 am

earthbound wrote:

Plumcots taste just like plums.. Same texture, same flavour, same everything...

That's pretty disappointing EB !

Charlie · **Posted:** Tue Jun 10, 2014 4:35 pm

Ive got a number of fruit and nut trees on our property and I know didly about pruning. None of them look like they have ever been pruned and look as though they are suffering because of it.

Whats the general gist? Time of year and how aggressive?

Burnsy · **Posted:** Wed Jun 11, 2014 11:16 pm

I prune now for all the deciduous and go hard. Others I do after fruiting, citrus i find hard as they tend to have fruit at different stages all the time so just do it when i feel inclined. A few of my olives which were about 5m high had the chain saw run across them at about 1.6 m a few months back. Looked terrible when I first did it but they are starting to look better for it so I just did another 2. I tend to be pretty brutal and cut based on a form or shape I want, can effect fruiting for a season but works in the long run. With old trees that have been let go I find that starting with removal of all the dead wood then opening them up with a finished shape in mind works well. I also give them a feed at the same time.

Peasants · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:53 am

Yep…we do the same…..all our younger trees are a reasonable shape now and only need a light prune to keep them that way (removing branches that grow inwards or at odd angles etc)…but like Burnsy we have pruned older trees quite hard to get them to a reasonable height so the fruit can be harvested and so they can be netted if needed.
We figure we were losing fruit to fruit fly or birds anyway, so a season or two of limited fruit after a hard prune is worth it in the long run.
Mind you….we may have overdone the 30 year old apricot tree…... :cry:

Charlie · **Posted:** Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:38 am

Ok, pruned back our apple, mango and macadamia trees, today will remove all the grass from the drip line, add compost and mulch. Ill give them a bit of a seasol birthday in spring and hopefully try get them to recover (might take a couple of years?). The mandarin, orange and lemon are still producing a lot so Im assuming I wait till they stop baring and give them a light prune.

Peasants · **Posted:** Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:00 pm

Good luck removing the grass from the drip line! :anger:

Unfortunately our sever pruning of the really old apricot and apple seem to have hastened their demise :sad2:

Time will tell, as you indicated the fruiting can be set back after a severe pruning!

Charlie · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:41 pm

Both the apple and macadamia were not producing anyway so my thoughts were to give them a good pruning to hopefully help them out. Both trees have grown into the original timber stakes that supported them and the trunks dont look too good because of it so hopefully they arnt too far gone. Such a shame to have these old established trees that havnt been looked after.

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