Very informative, interesting and well delivered, I have watched several other people trying to explain how to prune and train fruit trees but I just end up being bamboozled
Thank you very much 🙂 Pruning and training can indeed become rather confusing. I find it helps to start from the perspective of the growth and fruiting habits of the tree in question, then suggestions as to how to prune tend to make more sense.
Hi Jonny, thank you so much for the wealth of knowledge you share on your channel. I’ve just planted a peach that I hope to fan train and I wonder if you can advise me. It has a couple of nicely placed feathers about 15” off the ground, and I was thinking of pruning the leader back to those feathers, but they’re rather weak (only about a foot long). Should I prune the feathers back to encourage them to grow, or just let them alone after I prune off the top growth? Thank you!
Personally, I think I would cut back the limbs by around 1/3 to an upward facing bud. It seems counter intuitive but as a general rule one should prune weak growth harder than strong growth.
Hi I have a 2 year old fan plum trained onto a west facing wall. It has put on a lot of new growth this year but not much blossom. When would be the best time to prune it. I've heard summer is best but if I prune it now in May will I need to prune it again at the end of the summer?
First a caveat - I'm sure advice varies somewhat, so this is just my view on it. With stone fruits such as the plums, avoid pruning from early autumn through winter as they are prone to disease. Soon after fruiting is probably a good time for the final pruning of the year and then don't touch them again until at least after bud break in the spring. There is less chance of disease during the summer and healing is much quicker when they are actively growing. The usual advice, I think, is to pinch out the new growth regularly so yes, if you do it now, you will also have to return to it later in the summer. It is important to pinch out, though, to encourage fruit buds to develop. With a 2 year old fan you wouldn't really except much blossom yet. Until the fan is complete - I would guess one or two more seasons - you have two different pruning/training tasks - first to pick suitable branches to develop the fan to cover the available space, if necessary shortening some of the existing framework branches to encourage side shoots to develop where you need them. Then on the more established wood you can pinch out side shoots to encourage fruit buds. You will want to rub out those growing towards the wall and straight out. Those that are well placed can be pinched out at, say, half a dozen leaves or so beyond the basal cluster (the group of tightly packed leaves that is often present at the base of a side shoot) and further growth can be pinched back to one leaf. When you do the final pruning of the year, you can cut back these side shoots to just three leaves. Any regrowth after that time is probably best removed in late spring. So, this approach would need multiple visits from late spring through summer. After a few years, you will probably need to start renewing some of the old wood. The spurs produced by plums are short and short lived compared with, say, apples and pears. So the old wood becomes less productive over time, and you will eventually want to start cutting out some of the old wood, back to a younger shoot that could replace it or a dormant bud from which a new shoot should develop. You won't have to worry about that for a few years, though.
@@jonnyskitchengarden Thankyou for this very detailed information Jonny. I decided to get stuck in and prune it now and I'm pleased with the result. I'll see what it looks like later in the year and tidy it up again before the autumn. I had one or two blossom flowers and found one fruit yesterday when pruning so I'm hopeful that I'll have a good crop in the years to come. Look forward to seeing more of your videos. It looks like you've got a huge project on your hands with your garden.
I have one apricot outdoors that might possibly be affected, and if so I will try to cover it from winter to summer (whilst still allowing access to pollinating insects). My peaches are old varieties that I expect would be susceptible to peach leaf curl but they are under cover so not affected. Wet conditions are needed for infection so if you can cover the trees to keep the rain off that should prevent it. That is easiest with fan trained trees or perhaps modest bushes grown in a polytunnel (we grew one that way in our old tunnel); otherwise I would consider growing varieties with some resistance.
Very informative, interesting and well delivered, I have watched several other people trying to explain how to prune and train fruit trees but I just end up being bamboozled
Thank you very much 🙂 Pruning and training can indeed become rather confusing. I find it helps to start from the perspective of the growth and fruiting habits of the tree in question, then suggestions as to how to prune tend to make more sense.
I watch a good number of UFO videos as you have and I appreciate yours as well because you present development for the hobbyist which I am.
Around the 18 minute mark you explain how to get wide croch angles by selecting your cordon branches well below the leader cut
Thanks 🙂
What time of year do you make these big cuts? April?
Depends on the conditions but anytime after bud break in the spring, when the tree is growing again and cuts will heal quickly.
Hi Jonny, thank you so much for the wealth of knowledge you share on your channel. I’ve just planted a peach that I hope to fan train and I wonder if you can advise me. It has a couple of nicely placed feathers about 15” off the ground, and I was thinking of pruning the leader back to those feathers, but they’re rather weak (only about a foot long). Should I prune the feathers back to encourage them to grow, or just let them alone after I prune off the top growth? Thank you!
Personally, I think I would cut back the limbs by around 1/3 to an upward facing bud. It seems counter intuitive but as a general rule one should prune weak growth harder than strong growth.
Thank you!
Hi I have a 2 year old fan plum trained onto a west facing wall. It has put on a lot of new growth this year but not much blossom. When would be the best time to prune it. I've heard summer is best but if I prune it now in May will I need to prune it again at the end of the summer?
First a caveat - I'm sure advice varies somewhat, so this is just my view on it. With stone fruits such as the plums, avoid pruning from early autumn through winter as they are prone to disease. Soon after fruiting is probably a good time for the final pruning of the year and then don't touch them again until at least after bud break in the spring. There is less chance of disease during the summer and healing is much quicker when they are actively growing.
The usual advice, I think, is to pinch out the new growth regularly so yes, if you do it now, you will also have to return to it later in the summer. It is important to pinch out, though, to encourage fruit buds to develop. With a 2 year old fan you wouldn't really except much blossom yet. Until the fan is complete - I would guess one or two more seasons - you have two different pruning/training tasks - first to pick suitable branches to develop the fan to cover the available space, if necessary shortening some of the existing framework branches to encourage side shoots to develop where you need them. Then on the more established wood you can pinch out side shoots to encourage fruit buds. You will want to rub out those growing towards the wall and straight out. Those that are well placed can be pinched out at, say, half a dozen leaves or so beyond the basal cluster (the group of tightly packed leaves that is often present at the base of a side shoot) and further growth can be pinched back to one leaf. When you do the final pruning of the year, you can cut back these side shoots to just three leaves. Any regrowth after that time is probably best removed in late spring. So, this approach would need multiple visits from late spring through summer.
After a few years, you will probably need to start renewing some of the old wood. The spurs produced by plums are short and short lived compared with, say, apples and pears. So the old wood becomes less productive over time, and you will eventually want to start cutting out some of the old wood, back to a younger shoot that could replace it or a dormant bud from which a new shoot should develop. You won't have to worry about that for a few years, though.
@@jonnyskitchengarden Thankyou for this very detailed information Jonny. I decided to get stuck in and prune it now and I'm pleased with the result. I'll see what it looks like later in the year and tidy it up again before the autumn. I had one or two blossom flowers and found one fruit yesterday when pruning so I'm hopeful that I'll have a good crop in the years to come. Look forward to seeing more of your videos. It looks like you've got a huge project on your hands with your garden.
I know it's too late to take any counter measures now but what measures do you take against peach leaf curl?
I have one apricot outdoors that might possibly be affected, and if so I will try to cover it from winter to summer (whilst still allowing access to pollinating insects). My peaches are old varieties that I expect would be susceptible to peach leaf curl but they are under cover so not affected. Wet conditions are needed for infection so if you can cover the trees to keep the rain off that should prevent it. That is easiest with fan trained trees or perhaps modest bushes grown in a polytunnel (we grew one that way in our old tunnel); otherwise I would consider growing varieties with some resistance.