You're (Probably) Killing Your Fruit Trees | Winter Pruning

winter pruning is essential that summer pruning would basically be a complete waste of time if we don't do this follow-up winter pruning right now all right Daniel we are revisiting the scene of the crime this last summer you gave my beloved Peach Tree which at the time was quite productive a very extreme haircut but you had told me at that time if we were going to make that summer haircut good we would have to revisit it in the winter what are we going to do today that is going to maximize fruit production and the actual long it of the tree cuz I want to still be picking trees off this bad boy when I'm 80 yeah so I saw on your trees a lot of the things that are really popular for like homeowner fruit tree care that you see online and as a professional arborist I spent a lot of time correcting the issues caused by that type of pruning and I think we can get a lot more out of our trees if we don't solely focus on fruit production but take into account other aspects of tree health so now that it is winter and we've been able able to assess how the trees did in the summer this is when we can really make some significant changes that will improve the trees fruit production and also longevity cool let's do it all right so with this tree it responded to those cuts we made by sending up a ton of really vertical rapid growth if you look straight up these branches that are growing vertical this is one year's growth that's almost 5 to 6 feet of growth in one year which is honestly crazy for a peach tree you told me that it was a fast growing tree but I'm honestly amazed I planted this tree the exact same day that I planted this tree although I did bury a chicken underneath that tree so maybe that had something to do with it but probably not all right so new growth in trees is determined a lot by a plant hormone called oxin and one thing oxen does is it orients new growth towards the available light and so that's why when we prune the street Tre heavy all the new growth was basically straight up and that's probably because like if we're going to boil this down a lot the leaves of trees are solar panels ultimately what the tree actually wants is like the most solar panels with the most access to Sun is that right yeah exactly and so that oxin orients new growth towards the sun and it also does something called epical dominance where it makes it so all the lateral buds so these buds growing on the side don't grow whereas the bud on the very tip continues to grow straight towards the Sun and so by reducing these really tall branches we're doing a couple things is we are disrupting that flow of oxin which will hopefully help change that apical dominance and we're also opening up more light up here in the interior canopy is that so that like these little branches can then get enough sunlight so they can actually sustain the growth of some new peaches yeah there's that and also you know because there's been so much shade a lot of branches like this Branch here oh yeah have actually been shaded out and you can tell this branch is dead because it's not this like healthy maroon color it's brown and withered and so when there's no sun branches kind of just die back and the tree self prunes and so by opening it up disrupting that kind of flow of oxen hopefully these little branches will get more energy but honestly for not this next summer but the next summer hopefully we're getting some on these branches here so that there can be some fruit lower down and easier to reach so basically what you're saying is like if we give this more sunlight it's going to fill out and grow like more branches in this area which is ideal yeah and that's the goal you know the trees are living things how they exactly respond is unpredictable but if we don't address this now there's no chance that that's going to happen and it's also probably going to require some follow-up pruning in about August or September some summer pruning that will will help again keep the tree maintained but also help this whole cycle continue this tree honestly is amazing with how it's grown and responded and been productive but it's a pretty high maintenance tree because of just how vigorous it is so we're going to need to prun this at least once a year probably twice a year I would also say that all of what you just said is an huge argument for learning how to prune ourselves which is exactly what we're doing here because we know that we're going to have to revisit this often and little and often is a whole lot better than one straight thing every few years by an actual professional so why don't you actually just go about pruning this tree and tell us you know like what kinds of cuts you're making and how and and I'll get out of your way and stop chatting your ear off and making my dumb jokes go after it man let's do it so we have three types of cuts we can do on a tree the first is a thinning cut where we take a smaller diameter Branch back to a larger diameter branch and so so that looks like a little bit where I'm removing some of these unhealthy suckers or reducing some of these branches so this branch that died here for example I am taking it back right back to the main branch and if you look when you're doing a thinning cut if it's a healthy attachment there will be what is called the branch bark Ridge which you can see better right here it's this kind of uplifted area of bark and that's a sign that the wood is actually like interwoven and a strong good attachment ideally you don't want to prune past that bark Branch Ridge because that will open up the tree to more Decay so we want to prune just outside of that just a little nubbing just a little nubbing exactly so the second type of cut is called a reduction cut and that is where we take a larger diameter Branch back to a healthy lateral that's at least a third of the diameter of the branch for pruning so it looks something like this where you have this Branch that's growing straight down that's not great so we're going to take it back to this lateral branch which again is a branch growing off the main branch that's a third of the diameter or larger and we'll take it there so the third type of cut is called a heading cut and that is where you cut a branch back to where there is not a healthy lateral so for this one we'll be pruning it back to these buds here so for example this would be a heading cut heading Cuts typically result in what's called epicormic growth which is like this rapid fast vertical growth that we've seen on this tree if we're going to make heading Cuts it's really important that we pay attention to where that bud we pruned back to is placed we want it to be growing directly out and away from the tree because that is the direction the new growth is going to occur so this bud you can tell it has these two on the side and this one in the middle so these are going to be flowers this here right in the middle is going to be a new leaf and that is probably going to grow up and out like that and so we want to pay attention if we were to take it back to like this one right here it would grow like towards me and up and so that really affects the structure of the tree long term is just the direction that these buds are actually facing so we don't want to prune from a bud that's going inside or back to side we want to prune it so it's again growing away from the center of the tree so when I'm pruning any tree I want to start with my biggest cuts and then work my way down to the finer cuts and that way as I go I can make kind of refined decisions so this is a chance that we can take some really heavy cuts that we didn't take in the summer great all right so I want the branches that we have to be within relatively easy reach and so for this that's going to include removing some pretty holy moly literally my whole fruit tree but okay we're good it's fine it's fine all right so again I'm going to keep continuing with these larger Cuts all right there you are and so I'm doing a couple things is I am considering the structure of this tree I am printing branches that are growing directly away from like the approximate Center of this tree so we have like a nice spreading open canopy and also that's going to long-term let more light penetrate like the inside because the pruning we do now is going to directly affect the fruit production of this coming season but also it's going to affect the growth that's going to be the fruit production for the season after that so in our last video we talked a lot about establishing a central leader especially on that apple tree and all trees will have that strong central leader when they're young but different types of trees will Branch out at different stages and so some trees will just be naturally more widespread whereas others will naturally be more contained but one thing nice about having a central leader is it allows those branches to be dispersed along that trunk at different spaces whereas this tree right here it's structure is established in this vase shape so as far as fruit production goes and or the traditional fruit production mentality this is a really good shape but if you look all of its main branches originate at the exact same spot and the good news is these are healthy Branch attachments you can tell because the bark has this Ridge that run along the attachments and that's called the branch bark Ridge and that indicates that the wood fibers are like interwoven and there is really good strong support there however if one of these branches fails that is going to compromise all of the other branches and I'll just pop in here is that like because if this splits then we're literally splitting the trunk in half right yeah it splits the trunk in half and also like once that split happens then the wood Decay fungi can get in there and then all these other attachments are then compromised and I've seen this firsthand my dad grew up on fruit orchards and growing up we had a few prize peach trees and right when they were like in Max fruit production years they had a serious breakage because it had so much big Delicious Fruit on them but it resulted in these wounds and within 5 years later the tree is completely compromised and is basically has to be removed and we want to avoid that everything that you're saying makes sense but I'm just going to like dumb it down for myself and for others too Leverage is a big thing for me I played on a teeter totter a lot as a kid and basically the farther out you get the more the weight of fruit is going to affect the structural Integrity of the tree so if we've got 80 peaches out on this Branch that's going to put so much pressure here in that situation Midsummer loaded down with fruit a windstorm can literally just totally tear this thing apart because of all of that leverage that's way out here on the branches yeah exactly and for this tree the fruit production is happening on wood that grew last summer yeah and if we consider this summer but then the next summer that's just going to keep things going further and further and further out and the way this tree is growing you know that's going to put a ton of Leverage and pressure right on all of these unions and again they are healthy but wood can only handle so much pressure and strain I'm understanding what you're saying correctly what I would imagine is that we're going to cut that Branch there mhm exactly because it grew straight up and now that's like way far away so if we put weight all the way out on that end of the Teeter Totter we're going to be really really m messed up but if we keep it down here closer to this like this Central weightbearing Area we're going to be golden I would imagine too that like we want to like not fully remove all these little internal branches but that we probably also want to think about okay what will actually be able to sustain the weight of a peach exactly right now yeah thinking about the future we're reducing these really long Limbs and because the structure is already set you can tell that don't mind the interruption from my um tick eating Factory over there they're Guinea Keats that are apparently threatened by a gust of wind or cloud or a shadow over their Coupe and here we are speaking of windy weather that brings us to the sponsor of today's video anchor solic we live in the south where tornadoes are a regular thing in fact last week a tornado ripped right through our neighborhood and our power was out for 4 days and as a farmer an entire Year's worth of effort time and money goes into the things that are stored in my freezer and keeping that freezer cold is hugely important to me so I had asked Adam a few months back to do research on battery backups for our home and he found the anchor solix and this little guy offers the same amount of power output as 40 of these this thing can power your home appliances like your freezers for 8 to 18 hours depending on how much of a cycle draw they have it's got regular little electrical plugs it's also got all the little doodad and um device plugs for your digital devices or phones or whatever but wait there's more you can also get this bad boy which is an expansion pack which will double your usage time for all of your devices but wait there's still more because our power was out for 4 days during the tornado we had to recharge this thing using the solar panels which will recharge each one of these units in under 2 hours these things are super sweet click the link in the description to find out more about these things and a huge thank you again to anchor solic for sponsoring this video and for making making videos like this possible back to the pruning so yeah I'm going to be reducing a lot of these longer branches trying to keep it just inside that Branch bark Ridge and Branch collar and it seems like I always manage to hit Adam right in the face when I'm doing this as I'm just holding this umbrella over Adam from the rain here another big question that folks had in our last video is like why are we not propagating all these branches and I will personally interject and say the reason that we weren't propagating all those branches is this is a dwarf tree variety which means that it was a peach tree that was grafted onto a short root stock if we were to take branches from the top part of this tree that were grafted onto the root stock of the tree and just stick those in the ground with some rooting hormone or anything else we would basically be planting a tree that ultimately was naturally inclined to be about 80 ft tall and there's no safe way to without specialized equipment to be able to actually pick fruit from that high wow this rain is really raining on my com down I was led to believe we had a light sprinkle coming at 300 p.m. and this doesn't really feel like a light sprinkle but here we are and it's time to prune the tree and we're going to do it cuz we're super thankful that Daniel's here doing it rain or shine rain or shine here we are farming at its best my friend friends yeah wow oops oh sorry my steak is still there but we don't need to talk about that is this a steak from the last video yeah it is but I mean here's the thing I was waiting for winter time for the ground to soften up which it in fact has however I'm not going to humiliate myself on camera right now trying to get it out I'll come back with my tractor and it'll be great and you will rip the whole tree out of the ground ironically this little steak and ratchet strap was the very reason that we started looking at this peach tree and the first place because Daniel is like if you have anything around the bark of the tree like this little label up here it's going to do what's called girdling the tree a word I learned in our last video a ratchet strap here will basically cut off the ability of the bark to send the nutrients up to the top of the tree where the fruit is actually going to grow so we don't want to do those kinds of things we're going to basically rebalance the tree naturally instead of trying to force it mechanically excellent so Ann we have gotten all of the big major branches removed this thing is about half as tall as it was before and so right now what I'm doing is I am reducing a lot of this long growth like you're saying so that like a lot of these branches where the peaches are actually going to occur can support some peaches without bending straight down like you know some of these guys have already done and honestly having branches that are growing at kind of more an upward angle means that they're going to be able to support more weight if that branch is growing at a Down W angle as that weight increases it's it'll just snap it's going to it's way more likely to snap totally okay so I'm just going to go around I'm going to be doing a series of heading cuts and reduction cuts to kind of take care of a lot of these issues um also looking at branches that are growing the wrong direction in the last video like kind of the main point of the last video was that lion tailing was was one of the biggest mistakes that like like beginner pruners make can you kind of address that yeah totally so there's a lot of emphasis on like home DIY pruning on thinning the tree and letting air circulate around the tree and what that results in people doing is intentionally removing all the branches that start from like the base of the branch all the way to the tip so that there's just leaf and like fruit at the tips of the branches and like we talked about before that creates a huge lever arm effect as wind hits that there's no sort of buffer effect when there's evenly dispersed branches down the branch that lets all those move kind of at different rates which dampens the effect of wind so that they can be stronger and support more and so right now like hold on I'm just going to quickly interject because this is actually something that I suddenly understand for the very first time okay when the wind blows leaves are are are absorbing some of that wind power right yeah and so what you were just saying is like if if all of our leaves are basically on like little pom poms at the top of the tree then that's going to become like a wind sail that's going to spread the tree apart and like break break these branches but when we first started pruning these trees together I wanted to literally come and clip all of these tiny little branches away because I was like this is never going to be able to support a fruit but if we now have pruned out all this stuff that's going to shade this out now this is going to get enough solar energy for those leaves those solar plan panels to send some like thickness growth out and then all the leaves that are going to come from this are going to then actually become kind of like tiny wind sails of their own so that will like disperse the winds energy throughout the whole tree which basically makes me think about like that Dr Seuss movie The Lorax which if we're in Tornado Alley with a bunch of Lorax trees we're not going to have any fruits next year exactly this is especially common in the like Pacific Northwest where there's like wind sail reduction and it's basically Professional Tree workers selling lion tailing and it's totally counterproductive because they go and remove all the interior branches with the idea that oh the wind's just going to sail through there a lot easier what that actually does is like you said it creates these pom poms and all the wind is just hitting the end of it which really puts a ton of strain right at those crotches and if you actually have evenly dispersed branches those move at different rates depending on how big they are how long they are so it kind of disrupts that overall wind Force so that there's not as much pressure on those crotches so they're less likely to break so but really if fruit production and Longevity is the goal no matter where we are we really want to focus on making sure that our tree is actually balanced exactly yeah and paying attention to things like Branch spacing as well as the direction the branches are growing that's something I've seen on a lot of YouTube videos is they'll understand some of these Concepts but then they'll Pro back to a branch that's growing like in some crazy Direction so you know there are some things multiple things to keep in mind as you're going but what comes down to it what I'm really passionate about is understanding like what is actually happening in the tree and not treating the trees like some sort of formula like understanding the principles so that you can apply that to different trees rather than just being like Oh I'm going to do this X Y and Z because they're living things each tree is going to be slightly different even trees of the exact same species in different locations or depending how they're planted are going to respond differently so if you're able to like read the tree and like oh this tree struggling I'm not going to prune as much or like this tree has this specific growth form I'm going to use that to my ADV AG rather than like fighting against it okay I'm popping back in here to say that I think that there's actually a really good life principle at play here and that is rules were kind of made to be broken however to actually be able to break a rule in a way that's not ultimately or long-term very destructive we really really have to understand the rule and the reason for it so that we can actually break it and there's a lot more we could say about that from a LIF lesson standpoint but this is a tree pruning video so let's get back to it you want the bigger pruners bro oh I just needed a hand workout today and why use the right tool when you can just you know get really good grip strength uh Daniel you just lost your safety glasses which I think this is a good opportunity to talk about everyone's least favorite topic safety tell us what you're doing and why as a professional arborist I have climbed 100ft trees with chainsaws I've never cut myself with a chainsaw I've been super careful the injuries I've received have been from using tools like handsaws or from just little branches like this poking me directly in the eye I mean I feel like we could probably remove those so that we can see your eyes for a second but we'll talk about why we're wearing them in the first place so that honestly is something I have actually fought with my manager about being a professional arborist is like you have to have eye protection to be safe but also you kind of have to see what you're doing to be safe so if I'm getting really foggy glasses that's why I lost them in the first place I took them off and they fell off but eye injuries are super serious and if you cause permanent damage that is something you have to live with the rest of your life so it's worth just wearing some safety glasses and also I've cut myself with saws like this good night in heaven I have gloves it's fine we understand the rules so we can break them Daniel it's fine I got gloves it's fine these saws are insanely sharp especially when they're new you can easily cause some serious damage to your hands so just put on some gloves it's really simple but realize like there is some inherent risk in what you're doing and be careful and I'll also say that safety is super important I nearly lost my eyesight in this eye when I bent over a blueberry blush and depth perception and all those things kind of got in my way and I literally poked it ended up in the hospital serious things over really really silly mistakes that could totally be avoided okay Daniel it looks like you've given my tree the same bull cut my mom used to give me but tell us where we're going from here all right so again you might look at what we talked about where all the fruit is produced on the wood that grew last year and you're like we removed so much wood that grew last year however thinning trees both the fruit and the branches that produce fruit means that the fruit that is on there is going to grow bigger and be healthier so this tree should still be really productive are you saying we're going to get bigger better peaches now bigger better peaches and I don't know if you can tell on camera but this tree is now Hobbit size about 5 ft tall and sized if you will but yeah so we've reduced these long heavy branches made it so that when it does produce fruit it's not going to weigh so heavy we've set ourselves up for this next year to have success but also the following year the growth that forms is going to be able to support fruit but again this is going to be a high maintenance tree we're going to have to do consistent pruning to keep up with it so that it keeps on being healthy and productive and doesn't just split apart awesome okay let's take a look at a different tree all right in our last video we also addressed this plum tree and and at that time we did some similarly heavy pruning and you had some thoughts about what was going to happen let's talk about that right so honestly an we should not prune this tree this year most of its issues are from improper planting if we look down here we can tell that it was just planted way too deep we have to go about 4 to 6 in before we hit a lateral route and so this tree no matter how we prune it is going to be unhealthy and actually we're going to be able to fix those issues but that's another video for another time as it happens this is actually the perfect time of year to plant fruit trees you're going to show us how to do that the right way let's go plant some trees let's do it all right we will see you in that video [Music] cheers

Channel: Anne of All Trades

Views: 77,256

Keywords: anne of all trades, fruit trees, gardening, garden, tree trimming, tree maintenance tips, gardening tips, plum tree, peach tree, tree pruning, winter pruning, winter tree pruning, arborist, peach tree pruning, fruit tree pruning

Id: dDsRoCna3vQ

Length: 24min 58sec (1498 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2024