Pruning to Establish Young Trees
by Doug
(in his garden)
Imagine a pole, and you want branches to come off that pole in a upward spiral. The first branch starts off around 24-36 inches from the ground and goes out toward the West (pick any direction you like).
The first four branches - should in a perfect world - go out 90-degrees from each other to point to different parts of the compass. These should be as close together in height as you can get them.
You convince a young tree fresh from the garden center to do this by making a special kind of cut that promotes new growth. See the video here to identify that kind of cut.
In other words, if you prune in this manner, you’ll create a flush of new growth. If you don’t prune in this manner, what you see on your tree is what you’ll get.
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Once you’ve identified your first 4 branches spiraling off from the central trunk (it could be three and the closer the spiral the better) then you want to
Do it again. Move up the trunk another 24-inches and pick another 3-4 branches that will be your next support system.
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Do it again. You create as many “platforms” of 4 branches as you have the height to work them or pick them. Generally 2-3 is lots for the home gardener.
Dwarf trees will only take two while bigger standard trees can take more. It depends on the size of your tree.
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I said “spiral” in the first paragraph because you do not want any branch to be directly on top of any other branch. You want all branches to have equal access to sunlight without shading from upper branches.
Shading reduces yield.
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Buying A Tree
The reality is that most trees in nurseries are not pruned correctly. You have to do it yourself. This means the younger the tree, the easier it is to prune properly.
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Notes on Actually Doing This
With a 4-5 feet tall tree, we’re going to cut it down to 3-4 feet in late winter before the buds have started to form.
This is going to force the tree to produce a large number of new shoots at the growing tip of the plant - in the top 6-18 inches of the plant.
When this new growth is 3-4 inches long, decide which one of the shoots is the most vigorous and upright and will be allowed to grow up to become the main leader of the tree - the point that grows up rather than out.
Leave this main “leader” and remove all shoots that are within 4-6-inches of it (nothing above is left - and only remove 4-6 inches below - anything more than 6-inches is left). Taking away the “competition” lets the tree know that this is the new leader and all the energy will go into growing this branch straight up instead of sharing it with the other options.
(see diagram)
The new shoots or branches that are below this 6-inch mark become the side shoots because they won’t be as vigorous as the main leader won’t be as upright and will be easier to train.
When these side branches are 6-8 inches long, they can be “adjusted” gently with clothes pins or small bits of wood to bend them (carefully) into position to face more outward than upward. Remember the direction and orientation of the branches (see above for orientation of pruning and establishing the scaffold).
You now have your first scaffold layer.
Let the leader grow up 24-inches above this first scaffold - this first series of branches off the main trunk and then repeat the process.
Cutting off the leader when the plant is dormant, discovering the main new shoot, removing all others to 6-inches below the leader and then training another 4 branches outwards.
Repeat this until the tree is as tall as you want it to be.
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