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Simple and Effective Spring Pruning Tips By: Peter Doyle  |
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Every spring during the month of April, it’s time to prune fruit plants like grapes and your fruit trees. Pruning is essential for many reasons including: increasing crop strength, eliminating infection and disease, increasing sun exposure, aesthetic appearance and many other reasons. But before you head out with your saw in hand, take a look at the following tips to make sure you’re pruning in a safe, effective way.
Simple and effective spring pruning tips:
Always use sharp cutting tools for pruning so you do not make any jagged or rough cuts on your trees or plants.
When pruning a branch, always cut the branch at a straight line directly against the main branch or the trunk of the tree.
Cut off dead, broken or diseased branch. If the branch is partially alive, cut the branch just above the nearest bud on the living portion of the branch.
*If you are not sure if the branch is dead or dormant, you can peal back a small piece of bark to see if the wood is green underneath.
*If you remove a limb that is diseased, do not put it into your compost. Dispose of the limb by burning, or throw it away in the trash.
Although it may seem obvious, pruning the top branches of a fruit tree will cause the tree to become more low spreading and produce more product on the lower branches. Just the opposite, pruning the lower branches and tree sides will cause the fruit tree to grow upwards, and to produce more fruit on the higher branches.
When pruning grapes it is important to prune away a lot of wood. Grape vines that are too dense block out much needed sunlight from hitting the areas where the grapes will form. It is important to prune back as much of the grape plant as you feel comfortable cutting away. But ultimately, the more sun that hits the fruit producing areas, the more grapes you will have to enjoy.
Pruning is a simple and quick spring garden task. If your pruning tools are sharp and functioning well your pruning tasks should go fairly easy. Now is the time, get outside and prune!
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