Summer Fruit Tree Pruning Guide

Summer is a wonderful time to witness fruit trees flourish.  The increase in sunshine provides a major dose of energy for plants to grow, thrive, and produce an abundance of tasty fruits to harvest and enjoy. Pruning isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind when tending to fruit trees in the summer, however it is essential for maintaining healthy happy trees.  There are some key steps you can take for pruning your fruit trees in the summer to ensure growth for many seasons to come.  Be sure to check out our Summer Pruning Fruit Trees Tips to help provide continued successful growth and watch our video below for the full guide.

Summer Pruning Fruit Trees Tips

1. Summer prune between late June and mid-August.

2.  This time is best to prune disease prone plants, stone fruits, and vigorous plants.

3.  Prune out any dead wood, diseased wood, and crossing branches.

4.  Sumer pruning is an especially great time to control vigorous growth and to keep trees at desired height.

5.  Try not to over-prune.  Over-pruning risks stunting the plant.  It is also important to be mindful of limiting pruning in the understory of the plant.

6.  Prune nitrogen fixing plants  in the summer.  Pruning nitrogen fixing plants causes root die back which releases nitrogen from the rhizobia nodules back into the soil for your surrounding fruit trees.

7.  Summer is great time to prune down comfrey to use as mulch for your fruit trees.  Comfrey is a dynamic accumulator which means it will absorb a high concentration of beneficial nutrients in its leaves.  These leaves can then be mulched and incorporated back into the soil providing a boost of nutrients to surrounding plants.

8.  Allow summer pruning to be your fruit tree’s friend!  It will help keep it healthy and thriving for years to come.