Good news - it is time to prune your fruit trees!

Feb 25, New apple trees If you just planted your apple trees in the last couple of years, your pruning decisions now are important. They will determine the shape that the tree takes, and may influence how soon you get to harvest fruit.

However, this should not take you very long, because you will not need to make many cuts. General pruning guidelines Remove diseased, broken or dead branches. Remove any downward-growing branches. If two limbs are crossed, entangled or otherwise competing, remove one of them completely at its base.

The UMN Extension Horticulture team has you covered with videos and written instructions on how to prune home apple trees.

Remove any limbs along the trunk that are. Mar 01, You certainly can--by pruning your apple tree(s). Extension Educator Annie Klodd, a fruit and vegetable specialist, says late February, early March is just about right for Minnesota gardeners. The trick is to do it at the end of winter just as the temperatures are rising a bit, but before the tree's. Jul 22, Pruning older apple trees Continue to head back all-new terminal growth by one-fourth each year.

Remove any upright limbs (suckers at base or water sprouts on branches). Remove any broken or diseased limbs. Always maintain the central leader as the highest point on the tree. The ends of. Tree pruning impacts trees in many ways, such as causing a risk of decay through open wounds, loss of food-producing leaves for growth, and redirection of growth by reducing competing branches. There should be a reason for pruning a branch or branches from a tree. Pruning Apple Trees 4 Trees Over Ten Years This is the age when trees are in prime fruiting.

The limbs begin to bend from the weight of the fruit. Removal of thin wood, crowded branches, broken limbs, and water sprouts is a general practice.

The big problem now is keeping the tree down to size without stimulating more upward growth. Jul 23, On a mature fruit producing apple tree, pruning should remove the older, less fruit productive branches after their peak three to five year period.

Summer is the best time to remove these older limbs when it is most obvious which ones those are. It is also a good time to prune diseased or damaged areas of the apple tree as they become visible.