Pruning Peaches & Nectarines

Few home gardeners prune their fruit trees enough. It is especially important to prune peach and nectarine HARD, as this years fruit buds are borne on the wood that grew last year. If too much wood is left on the tree, it will set way too much fruit, and grow very limited wood.

Too much fruit will mean you must thin the blossoms and fruit even more than usual, which is time consuming, and stops being fun after the first half hour or so. Too many fruit buds leads to smaller, less sweet fruit.

Good shoot (current season wood) production is necessary to ensure strong blossoms for the next years crop. Don't worry- the more you prune on a peach, the more it grows. Fruit load will help ballance the shoot growth, so be sure to leave a crop on the tree. Take into account that you could lose fruit to frost in the Spring, so leave plenty of future blossoms, and thin them off as soon as you are sure of your crop set.

Prior to pruning- note the moderate shoot growth from the previous season.	Post-pruning. Many less fruit buds, but still adequate for a heavy crop.

Your aim should be to remove most of last years growth, leaving some new wood from last year spread around on the tree. Some "saw cuts" may be needed to ensure that light will penetrate well into the tree. Light is life to a fruit tree, and you must keep the sunlight on the lower and interior leaves.

Try to avoid leaving any limb in a position where it is likely to cast shade for most of the day on a limb below it. You have to work to keep the upper part of the tree from overgrowing the lower, or else you will find the lower portion of the tree bare of growth and fruit after a few years.