The gardener speaks of a training pruning when the young fruit tree is supposed to develop a strong crown structure with numerous, well-lit fruit branches through targeted measures in the first five to eight years after planting.
How do you prune fruit trees?
Pruning fruit trees aims to develop a strong crown structure with well-lit fruit branches in the first 5-8 years. To do this, you should remove shoots in late winter or spring, trim the leading branches and cut back the trunk and leading branch extensions. Spindle bushes require special training pruning.
Education cut for half or standard stem
The first training cut is carried out in late winter or early spring after planting. The aim of the measure, which is repeated annually, is an ideal crown framework that is constructed according to the following aspects:
- strong central shoot
- three to four well-spaced, strong leading branches
- three side branches per leading branch
- several loosely scattered fruit branches along the trunk and the leading and side branches
- fruit wood evenly distributed over the various parts of the crown
You can achieve this goal as follows:
- Remove all shoots competing with the leading branches.
- Shoots that are too close together and have grown on the tops of the branches are also removed.
- Cut back the trunk and leading branch extensions.
- The strength of the pruning depends on the growth potential of the tree.
- Strong pruning only when there is strong growth.
This cut is repeated every year. From the third year after planting, the side branches are trained, with each leading branch ideally having three side branches. These should not be too close apart so that the future crown does not become too dense. Steep young shoots are always cut away as fruit wood cannot develop from them. After shortening, the tree should have the shape of a house roof or a flat pyramid.
Pruning of spindle bushes
Spindle bushes always retain a small crown and therefore, in contrast to a half or standard trunk, require special training pruning. If you use a two-year-old fruit tree to grow a spindle, cut off all the other branches apart from about five, arranged as evenly as possible around the trunk. The middle shoot should also be cut back significantly. To create the typical spindle shape, cut back the side shoots remaining in the upper area more than the lower ones. The middle shoot must always be at the highest point. Shoots growing steeply upwards should always be removed.
Tip
Always cut to outward-facing buds (called “eyes”) to create a wide, well-exposed crown.