posted 6 years ago
I am pruning primarily to keep the trees small, as I will not always be able to climb for the fruit. I want to keep everything under 8 feet, which won't be possible with the already established trees but I'm working a little at a time to bring them down to a level where I can reach the fruit easily. Work in progress. All my young trees are seed-grown and I'll be able to train them from the beginning. The almond was pruned every year until life interfered and I had to let it go--now it's much taller than I'm comfortable climbing. Same with the old plum, and for the same reason. I've seen no difference in quantity or quality of fruit on either the almond or the plum since I was unable to prune, and if I wasn't thinking about 20 or 40 years from now when I CAN'T climb, I'd probably just let them go. We took a major limb off the plum tree last year, another this spring, and probably a third next spring. That should bring the majority of the tree into bounds where I can at least reach it to pick.
New location. Zone 6b, acid soil, 30+ inches of water per year.
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