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Knowing not only what must be cut but also what should be left uncut, and how the tree will respond is the art and science of pruning.

Train as much as possible and remove as little as possible. Bending and tying shoots instead of cutting them out, especially on apple and pear trees can induce early fruit production. Use sharp pruning tools to make clean cuts. Discard or compost pruned out shoots and branches.

Many people rely on pruning only to shape apple trees. While pruning offers many bene-fits, it limits the grower’s options to removing branches only. Often, the remaining branches aren’t in an ideal position for maximum fruit production.

To train properly angled scaffold branches, either weight the branches, tie branches to pegs in the ground or brace the branches apart with spacer sticks.

Training, by contrast, allows the grower to shape the tree through branch positioning and pruning. Well-trained trees produce more fruit of higher quality thanFile Size: KB. Training and pruning are critical parts of growing a productive apple tree.

The rewards of proper training are a tree that is easy to harvest, has sustained high yields, and quality fruit. Careful attention to training and pruning in the early years of the tree will establish the correct form and make caring for it in maturity much more manageable.

The primary goal of pruning and training fruit trees is to improve sunlight distribution. Apple leaves almost harvest at least 30 percent of the sunlight available on a sunny day to operate at full capacity and for fruit to obtain maximum size, color, and sugar levels. Where as with a grain crop, % sunlight interception is optimal.

in the pruning of fruit trees. These principles include early training, selecting scaffold limbs with wide (°) angle crotches and elimination of those with narrow crotches, thinning crowding branches and broken limbs, and heading the tree at a height desirable for economical spraying and harvesting. Training apple trees. The training and.

Jul 22, Training and pruning a one-year-old apple tree The purpose of pruning a tree in the first 3 to 4 years after planting is to control its shape by developing a strong, well-balanced framework consisting of a central leader with scaffold branches. Apple trees should have a vaguely Christmas tree shape with the lowest scaffold branches having the widest spread (image above).