Fruit trees can be tricky to take care of (Image: Getty)
One of the most rewarding things that gardeners can do is growing fruits and vegetables. In the UK, the climate is just right for varieties like apples, pears and plums, but it’s not always easy to grow them and keep them thriving.
According to Gardeners’ World expert Alan Titchmarsh, pruning your trees correctly is key to getting them to produce plenty of fruit. But there’s one mistake that trips a lot of people up, and it can ruin the trees completely without you even knowing. Alan took to YouTube to demonstrate the best way to do it, and that key mistake to avoid.
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He says there are a few reasons why you might want to prune a tree, for example, to produce a more ‘appealing’ shape or get rid of pests and diseases. Encouraging flowering and fruiting is another, and probably the most important for many gardeners.
Most fruit trees will need pruned when they are dormant in winter, but others, like cherries and other stone fruits, spring is a good time to do it.
Demonstrating to a branch on the tree, Alan said: “These buds haven’t yet broken. They haven’t yet started to emerge, it’s still dormant.
“What are you trying to encourage? Flowers and fruit, and they occur on things called fruiting spurs.”
These tiny buds are going to produce fruit and flowers (Image: Getty)
These tiny little buds will look ‘fat’ as they contain blossom, whereas on other, skinnier stems, you’re only going to get foliage. Alan said: “These are the ones that you can cut back.”
You can reduce these branches by at least a half, keeping the canopy thinner and allowing good air circulation.
It might be tempting to cut back loads of the tree, but Alan warned people not to be too ‘aggressive’ with it, as you might end up accidentally pruning off the most important blossoms.
He said: “Preserve those little stubby bits that go all the way up the branches because they will produce your crop.”
Trees that you want to avoid pruning in spring include ones that flower in spring, and those that bleed sap or are susceptible to pests in April.
You still need to cut off dead, diseased, or damaged branches if needed, but larger-scale pruning is not recommended.
According to the experts at Home and Garden, some of the trees you should never prune in spring are:
DogwoodFlowering cherryOakJapanese mapleBirch
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