Seasonal Pruning

• 1). Plan on pruning your ornamental fruit trees regardless of their ages. Even if they are very young, pruning is necessary. The sooner you begin with this practice, the less work you need to do over the years.
  
  
• 2). Set a late spring date for pruning your ornamental fruit trees. These trees commonly produce flowers in the early part of spring, and you do well to prune soon after they are done flowering, but before the production of their fruit begins.
  
  
• 3). Pay close attention to insect and mold infested branches. Cut these first, and thoroughly clean your pruning tools to avoid spread of these infestations to healthy, non affected branches. This step preserves the health of your trees. Focus on growth and shape control only after these dangers to the health of your trees are removed.
  
  
• 4). Control growing but desirable shoots with your hand shears. This stunts the growth of the shoots while at the same time letting them mature rather than spending energy on fruit production. Simply snip off the tip of the branch right above a leaf.
  
  
• 5). Reduce the size of an ornamental fruit tree by using your hand shears on the branches that produce too many shoots. Rather than allowing this overgrowth to rob the light from other branches, cut off the shoots close to a fork in the main branch. If there is no fork, place the cut right above a bud to prevent complete dying back of the entire branch.
  
  

Emergency Pruning

• 1). Prune storm damaged ornamental fruit trees as soon as possible after the injury occurred. Although you know to avoid pruning during the height of summer or during active fruit production, the risk of not immediately pruning such a tree is outweighed by the benefits and the potential of saving the tree.
  
  
• 2). Cut off the damaged limbs well below any splintered break points with the pruning saw. This is an aggressive process and you might be horrified at the lopsided look of your ornamental fruit tree after this step. Remember that this is a lifesaving activity, and aesthetics do not factor into this particular step.
  
  
• 3). Prune some of the lower branches, even if they are not damaged. Cutting the branches results in new growth, and unless you only want the growth to occur at the portion of the tree that was damaged, it makes for a more pleasing overall appearance to have new growth emerge on various different limbs.
  
  
• 4). Even out the appearance of the pruned tree by thinning out the rest of it. Use your hand shears or saw—depending on the circumference of the branch--and cut the branches at varying lengths. Always remember to place the cut just above a bud or a fork in the limb.
  
  
• 5). Perform some follow up pruning if you notice that suckers and crossovers are developing. You can do this with the hand shears. Leave only the new growth that serves to even out the lopsided appearance of the tree.