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Pruning fruit trees - Overview

Pruning fruit trees - Overview: Encyclopedia II - Pruning fruit trees - Overview

In order to obtain a better understanding of how to prune plants properly, it is useful to have some underlying knowledge of how pruning works, and how it affects the way in which plants grow. Plants form new tissue in an area called the meristem, located near the tips of roots and shoots, where active cell division takes place. Meristem growth is aimed at ensuring that leaves are quickly elevated into sunlight, and that roots are able to penetrate deeply into the soil. Once adequate height and length is achieved by the stems and root ...

Pruning fruit trees: Encyclopedia II - Pruning fruit trees - Overview

Pruning fruit trees - Overview

In order to obtain a better understanding of how to prune plants properly, it is useful to have some underlying knowledge of how pruning works, and how it affects the way in which plants grow.

Plants form new tissue in an area called the meristem, located near the tips of roots and shoots, where active cell division takes place. Meristem growth is aimed at ensuring that leaves are quickly elevated into sunlight, and that roots are able to penetrate deeply into the soil. Once adequate height and length is achieved by the stems and roots, they will begin to thicken to give support to the plant. On the shoots, these growing tips of the plant are known as apical buds. The apical bud (or tip) produces the growth hormone auxin, which not only promotes cell division, but also diffuses downwards and inhibits the development of lateral bud growth which would otherwise compete with the apical tip for light and nutrients. Removing the apical tip and its suppressive hormone allows the lower dormant lateral buds to develop, and the buds between the leaf stalk and stem produce new shoots which compete to become the lead growth. Manipulating this natural response to damage (known as the principle of apical dominance) by processes such as pruning (as well as coppicing and pollarding) allows the horticulturist to determine the shape, size and productivity of many fruiting trees and bushes. The main aim when pruning fruit trees is usually to obtain a decent crop of fruit rather than a tree with an abundance of lush yet unproductive foliage. Unpruned trees tend to produce large crops of small, worthless fruit often damaged by pests and diseases, and much of the crop is out of reach at the top of the tree. Branches can become broken by the weight of the crop, and the cropping may become biennial (that is, only bearing fruit every other year). Overpruned trees on the other hand tend to produce light crops of large, flavourless fruit that does not store well. Pruning is therefore carried out to achieve a balance between shoot growth and fruit production.