Fruit trees to keep them small in your home garden

 How to prune fruit trees to keep them small

Learn how to prune fruit trees to thrive using this revolutionary method. Almost any autumn fruit can be trained to be perfect. Many fruit trees - including semidwarf varieties - can easily grow up to 15 feet in height. Anyone who tries to manage one of these large trees in the backyard will immediately appreciate the value of small fruit trees: they require less space, are easier to maintain, and produce fruit in manageable quantities. Growing compact trees allows you to plant a variety of fruits in the corners of your property or in the corners of a small orchard, and you can choose those varieties that suit your taste and climate rather than the size of the tree. From pear, peach, and plums to apples and apricots - almost any quality and the semi-standard tree can be trained to be very compact. Prune the fruit trees to keep them small.

The pruning treatment described in this article will produce a smaller fruit tree than you are used to - smaller than most dwarf trees (see Growing Dwarf Fruit Trees). Here lies the key to this little-known technique: the reaction to pruning of fruit trees depends on the season in which the cuttings are made. Trees' response is determined by whether the tree is actively growing (spring), nutrient accumulation (early summer), dormant (late summer), or completely dormant (autumn and winter). Keep this rotation in mind when using your scissors.

Prune fruit trees for small gardens: first cut

The first step in growing a small fruit tree is to make a rough heading cut (a cut that removes the growing tip) when planting. Even if such a cut seems serious, your planting work will only be completed if you remove two-thirds of your new tree. This pruning cut is important because it will create a lower scaffold (the primary joints that make up the canopy of the tree), and in the idle state this cut will give the tree strength and flexibility, which is very important for heavy stone fruit. Most importantly, it helps to keep the canopy of the mature tree within arm's reach.

Here's how to handle the first cut. When the winter is over and the land is ready for planting, buy a large dormant tree like your thumb. Plant the tree as soon as possible. Select a bud at knee height (approximately 18 inches from the ground) and make a clean, 45-degree cut at an angle from the bud. Cut close to the bud so it can heal cleanly in the natural line, but not so close as you cut inside the bud. There should be several buds between the cut and the graft - the bubbles will be lower on the stem where the heir (the graft that determines the type of fruit) meets the root. Knee-high prunes are reasonable for almost all fruit trees in small gardens, but peaches and nectarines will germinate more reliably if you cut above a nurse's limb (a branch that encourages the tree to absorb spring energy). A young tree will be 5 to 6 feet tall in the nursery, so in most cases, you will remove more than you can leave. Your beautiful sapling will now be a knee-high stick.

This cut looks tough. Do it anyway. The small structure of the upcoming tree will begin to form as a result. Keeping your tree still dormant is the perfect combination of conditions to utilize the nutrients stored in the roots, and vigorous growth and branching will occur in the spring, when the plant will transfer its energy to the remaining buds, removing a small fruit tree. For a strong start. Your initial cut will raise the buds below, and they will eventually grow into new joints, each with its own tip. The result is an open-center tree that is shorter, stronger, easier to maintain, and more effective.

Prune fruit trees for small gardens: first spring

After the first buds begin to break in early spring, examine the spacing of the branches and determine if you prefer the arrangement of the upper buds. Otherwise, prune below the configuration of the leaf buds to suit you. This place will eventually become the grove of the tree. If the groove is low, it will be easier to keep the tree small. The more you make this cut during the season, the more actively new joints will grow.

A young tree with a trunk thicker than three-quarters of an inch will find it difficult to push the buds. In this case, the caliber (stem width) is about the size of a thumb Make the first passive cut in place, then cut the second cut as soon as the buds start to form. Once the sprouts are gone, you can lower the scaffold as you wish.

Visit the tree again in early spring as the sprouts reach 1 or 2 inches long before the branches begin to form. Gently pinch everything except one bud where several sprouts grow at one end.

Prune fruit trees for small gardens: the first summer

In the spring and early summer, the autumn fruit trees grow and expend their energy reserves actively as they bloom and leave. This is what happens when trees are in a growing mood, often growing at a dangerous rate.

During the late winter solstice, the resources of a tree are displaced from the roots and stems and stored primarily as foliage. Prune pruning will remove some of those resources and reduce root growth later in the season. In other words, summer pruning will slow down a tree, which is a desirable result for smaller fruit trees. Peaches, plums, and apricots that are pruned in the fall and winter - the traditional pruning season - can grow up to 8 feet next spring, and the same pruning cuts made in the summer will only grow 1 foot or more. Cuts made when a tree is actively growing will heal quickly.

In a perfect world, a young tree would have three or four branches equal to its trunk. In the real world, lumbering elephants are exposed to the aggression of speeding midgets. The key to pruning is to imagine the future: notice the fully developed limbs interacting with each other. You may have several options. You may have an open area without branches. You may want to let nature in its course, but leaving more branches will prevent sunlight from penetrating the interior of the tree. Remove competing branches to create space. An ideal branch would be 45 degrees upwards. If you want to place a vertical branch, cut a header to encourage horizontal growth or hang weights on the branch to direct its growth downwards.

After removing the outer branches, cut the remaining scaffolding branches at least in half and place the bud facing the direction in which the branch wants to grow. In the case of aggressive growers such as apricot and plum trees, prune by two-thirds. Remove the growing suckers from the trunk or base of the tree.

The closer you prune fruit trees to the summer solstice, the greater your size-control effects. In late summer, the nutrients collected by the leaves already beginning to go into the stem and roots. A tree begins to become dormant in early July.

Prune Fruit Trees for Small Gardens: Winter

Since your tree will be bare, winter will be the best time to make structural and aesthetic decisions. The dormant season does not seem to be right - it can be a good time to remove elements that grow too horizontally, fence or branch off into a path. Portland, Oregon, Bruner John Iodine You must remove what he calls "The Three DS" - the dead, the sick, and the disoriented. Open the interior with some well-considered cuts. Observe the growth pattern of the tree and prune to enhance its natural grace.

Make header cuts in the winter only if you want an enthusiastic response - when you first try to create low scaffolding branches or when trying to revive an old tree. Prune more in the winter only if a tree is frozen, pruning is neglected and needs correction, or if last time you were too scared and wanted to make some better choices this time. The tree grows by pruning with the full force of its reserves.

In subsequent years, keep pruning: make architectural decisions in the winter and reduce the height around the summer solstice. When the fruit is at the tip of your thumb, the thin clusters will be the only fruit. Depending on the variety, some fruits can be harvested in the third year and a few dozen in the fourth year.

How to choose what to have and what to prune? Ask yourself what is best, listen to your intuition, and minimize anything. The tree will make new choices and you can always make changes next season.