It is not a good idea to prune in deep winter. You open fresh cut to like 5F cold weather.
Most people prune prior the buds out, or bud swell. New cuts can take on 20F no problem.
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I don’t think late pruning encourages early growth, at least based on my own experience. Grapes for me have a great deal of dieback, they do a lot of self pruning. So I prune them very late when I know which wood is dead or not. One time I pruned grapes early and I left on a bunch of stuff that eventually died before bud break and had too few buds overall.
For persimmons they can also die back a lot so I also prune them later for the same reason.
I don’t prune my blueberries, I only remove dead branches.
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I think @ lordkiwi question is if pruning now will encourage early bud swell. This is part of the question I’m asking. IMO, consistent night lows of 25F will keep buds sleeping. And there will be little winter die-back on the fresh cuts on dormant wood.
Will be happy to hear any other opinion. I think a later pruning (March) may encourage early bud swell. Now may be a sweet time to prune.
If anything I will be doing my Blackknot inspection and dorment spraying this weekend.
Some of my large fruit trees need a lot of trimming. Need to cut off all damages from the cicada. Peach, Asian pears. Not sure about the cherry.
Also need to cut down the Goldcot and one nectarine. Need to make room for something more productive.
You had Cicada’s in Prinston, i didnt see a 1 in Union.
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I hope so. I pruned blueberries and took peach scions last weekend.
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Hey NM-A Neighbors,
Do any of you know where, at this late time, I can lay hold of at least 2 peach rootstocks suitable for grafting to this year? I have not been able to find a regular nursery online that still has Lovell or seedling rootstock available. I thought I’d found a source, but wanted to wait a couple of days to get an answer back from someone else. They responded today to tell me they were sold out, so I went online to order from the second place… and now THEY are sold out too. Do I have any options, or will I need to wait until next year?
Rick
Here you go, Rick. I have an order with them already, can probably add to mine and save some shipping.
That’s an offer I can’t refuse, Kelby! Could you set up for me the purchase of two Lovell rootstocks to join your order? Will pay you when you stop by. Thanks!!
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Ah, well, the search continues. Thank you for trying, appreciate it!
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I’ve used random peaches from Vaughn Nursery as rootstocks when I could not find anything else. They are something like $7 each. Call them up and see if they can help, sometimes they have trees with variety label lost and they will give you a deal on them.
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Thank you for that tip, Scott, I will check with them tomorrow.
Rick
@ampersand and @scottfsmith - Well, after unsuccessfully trying a bunch of places to find peach rootstocks for grafting, I finally made a compromise decision. I found that Burgess has dropped the price of their “5-N-1 Peach Tree,” pre-grafted with Belle of Georgia, Elberta, June Gold, Hale Haven, and Red Haven, from $39.99 to $29.99, reduced to $28.75 for two or more. Plus, until 2/28 they have free shipping for orders over $50. I decided to order 2 of these trees, and can graft the scions I have coming (thank you, @dpps!) to them. I think this solution is the best I could come up with. They are also throwing in a couple of freebies, one of which is called “vine peach” seed, supposed to taste like mango. I am clueless about this, but hey, it’s free!
Rick
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I find it helpful to remove all drooping branches that tend to produce inferior fruit anyway. I also keep them open enough to bring enough growth to provide replacement branches as old ones become less productive.
This is based on mostly only caring for my own stand which I planted a quarter a century ago. It keeps sending out new wood and is as productive as ever. I only manage one other stand of them. I don’t grow them in my nursery any more- they take to long to size up when grown without supplementary water. However, once they establish size they withstand drought very well if they are mulched and devoid of weed competition.
I’m planning to dig out a well established MBvs fig tree in the next few weeks/month. Can’t guarantee it will be in good shape, but does anyone want it? It’s at least 6 years old, beefy plant. Nothing wrong with it, I just have too many darn figs.
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I think I might be interested, can I ask where you are in SE Pennsylvania? It could be a nice drive 
Just outside of Reading
