Hello all, I have an orchard with about 600 apple, pear, and plum trees in Minnesota 4b. Unfortunately, I work out of state for a few months at a time. Usually, I plan a trip back in late March to do all my winter pruning.
This year’s winter is the warmest in recorded history. It hit 55 above this week when it should have been in single digits. The maple trees are already running sap.
I have a trip planned for the second half of March, but I may be too late. What if the trees have budded out? Is there such a thing as “spring pruning”? I know the danger of fireblight goes up, but luckily we don’t see much of that around here.
Most of my trees are between 4-9 years old, and I still want to encourage growth. (Though a few are bigger/older and I’m ready to do summer pruning to tamp down their enthusiasm.)
Should I make an emergency trip to MN to try to get all my pruning done on a weekend in Feb? I’m freaking out a bit.
This isn’t our normal type of question. That’s a lot of trees in a climate where a mistake could have serious consequences. So, take my answer for what it’s worth which may not be much.
What I know is that pruning peaches too early can increase winter freeze damage. So, my inclination would be to say wait until the normal time. I don’t see how pruning early is going to help anything.
Hopefully it cools off soon and gets your trees back into dormancy.
Our resident commercial peach grower @Olpea might be able to help.
i agree. you might lose a little growth but better than causing more damage from a cold snap that comes along after. ive done some late pruning during early leaf out and didn’t notice much difference. mulberry would be the only one i wouldn’t prune leafed out as it bleeds sap heavily if not fully dormant.
We regularly prune apple trees in the spring. There is a slight more chance of fireblight, but most fireblight occurs during bloom anyway where bees spread it.
I also wouldn’t worry much about reducing vigor by spring pruning apples. Apples have a flush of growth in spring and the first part of summer, then don’t grow very much the rest of the season, regardless of when you prune.
They’ve done studies that have shown that time of pruning doesn’t have much effect on apple tree vigor.
Pruning peaches too early can cause increased winter injury. I don’t have winter injury on peaches in Texas. But in colder climates like Kansas and north from there it’s something to be concerned about. So that would be areas that get below zero in winter. Probably 10 below and colder is the primary concern.