Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and what is more beautiful than a tree full
of fruit?
Renovating the scaffold and secondary
branches is much the same for all fruit trees;
the major difference is in how the fruiting
wood is pruned. How you prune the fruiting
wood depends on what sort of growth your
tree fruits on (see pages 143-179 for the
fruit's individual entry).
After removing dead or diseased wood, look
for scaffold/structural branches that are the
base of the tree's shape. Next, run your eye
along the scaffold branches to locate
secondary branches and younger stems that
are in the right position to form mother
branches. Edit these accordingly. Leave the
detail of the fruiting wood until last and
don't expect large crops after renovation
(see Figure 5.20).
Figure 5.19
The typical triple bud found on peaches and
nectarines. The central thin wood bud is flanked by two
fat fruit buds.
usually consist of a cluster of two or three
buds (see Figure 5.19).
This pear tree is very dense with long whippy
growth. Long whippy branches will not be
strong enough to carry fruit to ripeness; they
The central bud will produce a wood shoot
that will bear next year's crop, while the side
buds will produce flowers and hopefully
fruit. Shorten the wood shoot to 20 cm in
summer, and then after harvest back to its
lowest bud. Cut out any extra shoots to
prevent overcrowding.
European plum and sweet cherry fruit on
spurs like apples and pears, but they respond
well to fan training.
Renovatingfruittrees
This is a very practical enterprise with the
clear objective of fruit production. In the
case of a fruit tree, their shape must be open
and balanced in order to carry good crops,
Figure 5.20
An overly dense neglected pear tree.
