Do you agree with this conclusion about summer pruning?

General Fruit Growing
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A friend sent me this article. It’s an older article, but I don’t recall it’s been posted on the forum. It’s from a respected fruit specialist, Rich Marini.

The article pretty much runs counter to everything I’ve read in trade magazines and what DWN has written. Also it seems to run counter to my experience, but I haven’t taken scientific measurements by any means.

I still like summer pruning peaches if I have time (as the article states, it prevents dead zones). Plus there is less winter dieback on peaches for me, if I prune in the summer or early fall vs. winter or early spring.

http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/news/2014/summer-pruning-apple-and-peaches

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He’s done detailed studies so I won’t take exception to anything he says. I use summer pruning to keep down tree size. So maybe it’s just a matter of it works if holding down tree size is your goal.

I do thin the fruit heavily and am very aware of fruit to foliage ratio. So I don’t think anything I’m doing lowers brix, at least not by much. For a heavy commercial crop I can believe his observations that summer pruning reduces brix. Either his crop was too heavy or he removed too much foliage.

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Mark,

Very interesting read.

The statement on apple summer pruning that “Although it seems that summer pruning should suppress vegetative vigor and promote flowering and fruit quality, the results from a number of studies do not support these claims.” really runs counter to what many of us (me included) believe.

I wonder about espelier apple trees as that seems to be the only way to prune them…

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It’s a must for me. Yesterday i pruned back my Arctic Glo nectarine because I needed to net it. My pepper sprays are not working well this year. I need stronger peppers (which I’m growing now). So the pruning made netting easier. I didn’t tie branches down on this one when young, so branches are rather upright, which is working well for netting.

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Does partial peach shoot removal affect fruit bud development?

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It affects it to the extent that partial shoot removal now removes some of next yrs flower buds. Any regrowth is much less likely to set flower buds. Now is way too late for any regrowth to set flower buds. My peach flower buds for next yr have been obvious for 2-3 months.

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Net’s a good way to bend the top branches down

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My input specific to espalier apples (from left to right: Hudson’s Golden Gem, then Fuji) and possibly plum/peach/pears in general. This is my observations, for my particular growing conditions in my zone 5, northern Illinois.

My espalier apples are into its 5 years since its creation but 2nd year since I reworked the process. It have yet to fruit but I highly think it’s going to produce flowers/fruits next season. Upon close inspection from last weekend, I saw so many fruits spurs were already developed right around the 1st pruned branches from this year.

Out of the 2 espaliers, the HGG is VERY prolific in its growth habit, putting out VERY strong, thick branches and leaves in all directions in spring. Summer Pruning seems to tamp the vigorous growth of the HGG. The regrowth after the 1st prune is somewhat less than its initial spurts. The Fuji is somewhat weaker (probably due to some shading from the nearby tree) but also are observed with many fruit spurs right below the pruned branches. These pictures were taken just yesterday.

I agreed that it’s time consuming but I’m not a commercial orchardist. This year, I modified my summer pruning tactic. Instead of constantly pinching any new growth every week like last year, I waited until most new growths reached way over 12" before I did the 1st pruning, in July. Another pruning will be performed next week as the new growths has reached that condition again.

Since I have yet any apple to prove its “reduced quality” theory, I can’t comment on this subject. But I think further thinning of the fruitlets and delaying branches length for pruning should mitigate the potential quality (size, brix level) issue?

I’ve summer pruned my other fruit trees like peaches, pears and plums for as long as I have planted them, into their 4-5 years. For these “free form” trees, I think I agree of the “detailed dormant pruning in the third year” method because I found myself did just that this spring/summer, except that it was not applied onto apple tree but others! Some vigorous shoots that were left out couple years ago now need to go. At least, I think my Asian pears responded quite positively this year with bigger fruit size, though lesser counts…

In general, I’m going to keep my current pruning practice but be mindful that I don’t have any PhD to back up my conclusion. :grin:

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Abundant fruit spurs…

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One more…

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I personally have been scaling back on summer pruning, but only because I found I could get away with skipping it. All I do now in the summer on my fruit trees is larger thinning cuts if things look too dense - take out a 1" limb in the center for example to open it up. One cut and I’m done :slight_smile: In the summer its hot and I have many other things to do in the orchard. In the winter I want excuses to be outside since I spend too much time inside. My winter pruning is brutal on my peaches and plums to keep the overall size in line.

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I agree. It is amazing to me how much those thick water spouts shade the interior.

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I read it and I’m just as confused about pruning as I’ve ever been. You would think that after a few years in the orchard and thousands of threads and hundreds of hours I’d feel better about what I need to do… Well I do not.

I’ve not done much summer pruning simply because I don’t understand the concept as well as dormant pruning.

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It’s not complicated. Buzz the top off, or prune to an outward growing branch/bud, or take out excessively vigorous growth that’s shading wood that you want to remain productive, and/or take out that same wood that’s shading fruit.

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Very interesting article. My summer pruning has been very haphazard. I plan to start using the research presented in the article. I’ll do most of my pruning in the late winter and stop summer pruning by mid July. After that I’ll prune only to fix problems.

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@scottfsmith do you find you can keep pear trees at a manageable size without summer pruning? I have euro on ohxf87 and Asian on bet rootstocks. Was hoping to summer prune to keep at a good height for picking. How tall do you keep your pears and when do you prune them?

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irby, my main pear planting was a bit of a failed experiment, I planted trees 2.5’ apart in an area with 6 or so hours of sun. For years I tried summer pruning but got no yield other than more shoots. I am getting yield now (12 years later), what I did was tie down some of the big top shoots and remove lower limbs. Many trees are something like umbrellas in shape. I don’t summer prune anymore, I just remove all the waterspouts in the winter. None of my trees are taller than I can prune from the ground.

I have a new planting of 3’ spaced pears in more sun, those I trained to Y shapes. I am also not summer pruning them much at all. Summer pruning could help, but I find its more important to train (and to prune the heck out of them in winter) than it is to summer prune. They are nearly all producing in their 4th year now. They are on quince though so which are a lot easier to prune and train at a small size.

Anyway overall I would say make sure to train by spreading and limb bending, and winter prune to keep it from being too dense or tall. If its getting away from you height-wise, butcher it. Summer pruning also can help, but training is far more important (and, lack of training was the biggest mistake I made - I did not tie down any limbs for many years).

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Yeah, that makes sense if is too late. I was thinking about earlier pruning, before the buds have fully developed. I didn’t know if partial shoot pruning would encourage more vegetative growth and delay fruit bud development further. It would only be a concern in colder climate where the growth season is short. I’ve never really noticed. Maybe the bud development is so fast it doesn’t matter.

So far, I’ve only removed whole shoots on peaches during the summer. I prune other shoots back in the spring, just as they start growing.

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I’m only a few years into fruit growing now and I did at least one thing right. I followed some great advice from Alan, Scott and others on limb bending. My pears and apples are putting on blooms earlier and I have high hopes of getting my plums and peaches going soon. Bending appears to be the biggest contributor to early flowering.

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Spellman just added a video today about summer pruning. Nothing much new but he did show a good side by side comparison of vegetative vs fruiting wood.

https://youtu.be/zDgZk-vfccw

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“Although it seems that summer pruning should suppress vegetative vigor and promote flowering and fruit quality, the results from a number of studies do not support these claims.”
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I am no expert, but I wonder if timing as well a geographical location is an issue. According to research on the Ont. Ministry of Agriculture site, there are early summer pruning studies that conclude- “Pruning has the greatest dwarfing effect in June and early July. If you wish to reduce vegetative growth and prevent shoots developing, this is the time to prune. But remember that early-summer pruning has a very dwarfing effect. It first dwarfs the root system, and then the whole tree”.

This is done late June early July, not in mid-August as this study has done. But we are north of most of you so that is why I thought that location could drastically affect the timing to prune for reduced vigour.

There is no mention if it promotes flowering and fruit quality though.

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Haha, my first thought when reading the article was, “Oh gosh, someone tell Spellman” LOL.
Summer pruning never made sense to me from the energy production standpoint. But I’m from the school of Dave Spellman and did like he said…for one year…and started asking questions. The fact that root size decreased and trunk size decreased confirmed my hunch. Allowing light in to color up the fruit makes sense. But I’d like lots of energy stored in those roots.