We attended our first ‘Springston Secret Garden‘ workshop on Sunday morning, it was a very cold start but the information gleamed was well worth defrosting the car and getting outside early.
Greg Quinn of Home Orchard Care, expertly pruned a selection of fruit trees in the garden and helpfully answered any questions that the attendees asked.
Some pruning and tree care tips we picked up for our garden included:
- Keep your tools clean between trees being pruned
- Use quality tools with sharp edges to ensure you make clean cuts
- Buy quality tools that last
- The spiky shoots that come up from the base of citrus trees (Poncirus Trifoliata) should be pruned off as this is the rootstock
- Peach & Nectarines fruit on 1-year-old wood
- Cut out dead and damaged branches
- Open up the centre to light allowing the centre of the tree and therefore fruits all over the tree to prosper
- Apples & pears fruit on 2+ year wood
- Cherries fruit on 1-year and older wood, they can also fruit on the main stem
- Red currents fruit on older wood
- Keep fruiting wood close to the main wood
- The fruit trees in the Springston Secret Garden suited being formed into a vase shape. There are other tree forms and it is worth considering what forms might deliver the most fruit before you start pruning.
- A mixture including Oregano Oil or Thyme Oil could be used to reduce leaf curl for peaches, etc
- 1 in 1,000 chance in growing a good fruit tree from a seed
- Pear scion-wood can be grafted onto Quince
- Apple scion-wood can be grafted on to an Apple, Medlar, Quince, European Pear
- Many stone fruit scion-wood can be grafted onto a plum or Golden Queen Peach rootstocks
The steps for pruning choices should be:
- Remove rootstock shoots and suckers
- Remove branches with damaged wood (as these can lead to infection)
- Remove branches that cross each other and are likely to rub or block/shade each other
- Consider the shape of the tree and what will work best for fruit collection
- Use pruning paste on any cuts that are 25mm or bigger
- Don’t cut out more than 30% of the canopy, otherwise, the tree could suffer from shock
These were our notes, but we’re not the experts – if you have a home or commercial fruit orchard and need assistance, we suggest you contact Greg.