Quick question, I planted this bareroot Freedom about 3 weeks ago. I made a heading cut that removed about 3ft of trunk with a bunch of branches but now I’m wondering if I should’ve pruned the three scaffold branches to about 6" length. It looks like that’s how Ann Ralph says to do it in her book on small fruit trees…
Search for Orin Martin’s videos on YouTube @ UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology.
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Thanks I’ll check him out.
Anyone have any other input? Cole’s notes version of keeping trees small?
Looks like I got my answer in a 3 minute Orin Mitchell video!
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I would let them be for this season and do the trimming next spring while still dormant. Late summer is a thing but on a small tree less is better.
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Ah crap well hopefully the little guy can heal the cut quickly.
Yeah. Now he’s busy healing and not pushing all that energy towards growing. Pruning during dormancy works best because when the tree wakes up it is enjoying an overdose of chemical signals to heal and grow. The chemical balance later is a tad less conductive. Not that it won’t heal, but that you want to give it every advantage it can.
I don’t do late summer pruning but my understanding is that it is a second window of opportunity where the tree can accept pruning more readily than in the spring season.