We prune our fruit trees every spring, these standard size trees will get huge if allowed. I strive for 5 ft of clearance under the trees for mowing and keep the tops at around 12 ft for easy picking. We grow mostly heirloom varieties and use zero spray. We are just finishing eating fresh apples from last season stored at 34 degrees.
Our blueberries are also pruned annually removing about 15% of the older less productive branches. We grow several varieties to spread out the season. Our 24 bushes supply us with a years worth of frozen berries.
by Vermontbuilder
1 Comment
I’ve been pruning and pre-emergent electrostaticly spraying my orchards, bushes and vines 5 hours a day every day for the last three weeks.. sooo much pruning.
I would strongly recommend investing in an electric pruner or two, even with a comparatively smaller number of plants like yours. If you’re using manual shears / loppers / saws it will catch up with you over time.
Always remember to sanitize the cutting blade with 90+% alcohol between plants and especially between any cuts on anything that looks dead or possibly diseased.