Hi all. Was going to finish up my winter pruning over the next couple of days ( in Ontario). We currently have temperatures above 10 degrees Celsius. Just wanted to check if I’m still ok to prune given the very recent warm temperature?
Are you concerned about weeping from the cuts? I wouldn’t think 10 C was too high - relatively comfortable, in fact.
A lot of people prune year around. I like to think of dormant pruning as the best time to make big, structural cuts, and summer pruning as a time to tidy up things that pop up in the wrong place, and to limit growth the following season.
But that’s just on the few things I have, apples and pears and plums.
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I prune in late summer myself for size… and prune in late winter/early spring for shape. I just try not to prune if its going to rain within a day or so. YMMV.
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Thank you. Much appreciated
It depends. What tree’s/plants are you pruning?
Usualy 10 C is not to warm to prune.
For a lot of plants anything above freezing is fine to prune.
However for some plants/fruit you don’t prune during certain periods for disease prevention (silver leaf = Chondrostereum purpureum for example on stonefruit in Europe, no idea if it’s a problem in the US)
Another thing to account for is bleeding from the wounds. Certain trees/plants do this. Others don’t. For example apples/pears tend not to bleed. So you can almost prune whenever you want. (although dry weather during/after pruning is good for disease prevention)
While others like grapes and figs can bleed. And should be pruned when fully dormant or a while after leafing out.
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