I do this, too, but I usually pinch things back very short instead of rubbing them out completely or making thinning cuts in summer. I wish I understood that more.
For instance, the pinching to a 3rd leaf: when do you do that (what sorts of growth)? I’ve taken to pinching back everything I think I’d cut away next winter to 3rd leaves But then I come to peaches and don’t know if it makes sense with them. They don’t make spurs, right? Should I thin those out completely, then?
And almonds confuse me to no end. My scaffolds start great for several feet, but now that I get so much growth, I get multiple weeping leaders off each scaffold and don’t know whether to thin those or what? I started pinching back the ones I want to stay shorter than what will be the ‘main’ leaders. Can’t hurt? I swear, almonds don’t grow upright very much until the wood gets older, lol. Mine would rather spread endlessly than put on height. I’m trying to fix that over the summer as that’s when the growth can go astray, looks like to me. I’ve been watching for the most robust and vertical leader or two per scaffold and then pinching back the competing ones.
I prune heaviest in winter and early spring- with peaches small shoots are removed to create the best peaches and I even cut back the production shoots to reduce thinning needs- but I do as you do as far as I can. Whenever I am walking through orchards I have a hand pruner with me and things get cut. I begin summer pruning in earnest in mid-July, but to prevent biennial bearing of apple trees, I’ve started removing unwanted shoots starting a couple weeks after petal fall when I have time. This is when you can assure spur leaves aren’t shaded out- by summer pruning time (mid-July), shaded leaves have already been destroyed as light harvesting units it turns out- and it is too late to return them to functioning leaves. I’m pretty sure that early removal of unwanted shoots that create this shade not only helps the current season’s crop but also reduces biennial bearing.
What you don’t want to do is excessively remove shoots that are feeding fruit- be sure larger fruit has at least 30 leaves serving every piece of fruit. Excessive summer pruning has been shown to reduce brix in fruit.
Thanks for all these great responses. I feel much better knowing most of you are doing similar things as I am in terms of taking out growth you know you won’t want long term as soon as it appears. I wasn’t sure because almost everything you read talks about winter pruning only. Of course I still do most pruning in winter (in terms of mass) but I do keep the upper, inward facing sides of all my limbs clean by pinching all growth as it appears in those areas.
I would like to do a heavy pruning on my Redhaven peach right after I pick fruit from it this summer. My idea would be to cut off one of the three scaffolds low and regrow it, and rotate thru them over the next 3 years. The problem now is that the fruit is going to be out of ladder reach next year.
Could I do this and expect to get fruit on that scaffold next year? Is the 1st week of August too late to do that kind of pruning?
Edit: My plan was to do this some year with winter pruning when we got a really cold winter and I knew my buds got fried, but they didn’t get fried this year and I will have a good crop that I get to reach by ladder. (I’m learning how to grow fruit…)
I don’t believe that most varieties of peaches can be coaxed with any kind of consistency to regrow branches were you want to stick them. Never heard of managing peaches this way, although Redhaven is more capable of pushing new shoots from old wood than most varieties. Apples and pears can easily be managed with rotating scaffolds, but this is usually only done with 2nd and 3rd tiers in a central leader tree. There is no need to rotate the first tier because the entire motivation is to keep upper tiers from becoming dominant.
I have heard of a supposedly Israeli technique that sounds interesting where you maintain a peach tree as a trunk about 8-10 feet high and remove all branches that bear, after harvest and get your next years crop on new shoots coming off the trunk. Got to try that sometime.
But cutting back to a lower branch headed away from the rest of the tree could work, right? Even if it is small?
I suppose on my new trees I need to encourage flatter branch angles at about chest height to avoid the deer, but at least keep the fruit within reach of ladder. The only thing going in my favor is that deer don’t bother my peaches as much as apples.
Al long as the branch still has leaves behind where you cut, you are probably fine. I accomplish some of what you are trying by cutting back to buds on the bottom of branches or small shoots to keep peaches more horizontal, but if you can, tying to horizontal using stakes and string works better. Make sure wounds created by cutting to an undershoot are strong enough before putting too much crop on the branch that develops beyond that point. They are always weak at that spot for a couple of years at least. Peaches seem to acquire strength at those points, but apples and pears are best shaped by using spreaders or tying to more horizontal- at least until you get to near the final spread of the trees.
I think you are correct. On stone fruit I cut off branches that are heading in the wrong direction any time I notice them. Yes, leaves are the source of the tree’s energy, but new growth is sapping that energy, so I would call it a wash. On multigraft trees it is important to keep the different varieties in balance, I did not realize that 20 years ago when I first started my home orchard and found rather late that one variety is invariably more vigorous than the others and can dominate the others to their detriment. Hard pruning the dominant variety redirects energy to the others.
I had been making a mistake on some apple trees, doing heavy pruning of new growth too early in the season and not getting fruiting spurs which would have developed had I waited till July.
That is the method in forcing spurs while keeping trees small, but on free standing apple trees the trick most often employed is to do as few heading cuts as possible until trees are fully bearing. People usually prune young trees excessively, trying to get it to permanent form too early. This is fine for peaches- where simply reducing them early to 3 scaffold branches doesn’t slow them down much but most other species are dwarfed by excessive pruning and heading cuts delay maturity of branches.
Reducing immature wood is never a wash- it always is dwarfing. Often the best tactic is to remove nothing but oversized branches (more than a third the diameter of the trunk for vigorous varieties and half for spurry precocious types) until the tree begins cropping.
Of course, with multi graft trees, as you mention, this may not work, and you are forced to reduce the size of the more vigorous ones. Thinning cuts could be done any time to accomplish this, it is the dormant heading cuts that delay fruiting.
But then I come to peaches and don’t know if it makes sense with them. They don’t make spurs, right? Should I thin those out completely, then?