 The harvest may be over, but there’s still activity in the orchards.
As the leaves fall, the trees are ready to be pruned in preparation
for the coming year. This practice helps the tree produce a full, healthy
crop during the next season.
Without
pruning, peach, plum and nectarine trees would produce many
very small pieces of fruit. Pruning helps strengthen the
tree and allows growers to put its energy into growing fewer
but larger and sweeter peaches, plums and nectarines.
Pruning
removes spent “hangers,” the
small branches the fruit hangs from as it grows. This encourages
the tree to grow new fruitwood and hangers, on which blossoms – and
eventually the new crop of fruit – will appear the
next spring.
Pruning
also helps more sunshine reach the fruit. Growers remove
some branches from the centermost portion of the tree to
keep too much shade from being cast. More sun helps the fruit
grow better, and in the case of peaches and nectarines, encourages
the splashes of red that have such great eye appeal. |
