Posted in 2010 Permaculture Garden Workshop Series, GANG Garden 2010, Green Acres Neighborhood Garden (GANG), Urban Farmstead | April 23rd, 2010 by Ann

The goal of this workshop was to learn how to prune in the context of small-scale organic fruit trees for quality fruit production.

Nathan Harman, a local designer, teacher and practitioner of permaculture, gifted nine people with his pruning expertise s on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in April. Unfortunately, I missed his introductory remarks, except for taking photos of the group from afar, as they sat in the still dormant GANG garden.

Here’s what I gleaned from popping in and out of the workshop:

Nathan seems to be guided by three principles: 1) pruning fruit trees is as much art as science; 2) always prune for light and air inside the tree; and 3) guard against infection.

Principle #1: Imagine a tree as having a life cycle including infancy, growth, sexual maturity, and old age. We want to prune to keep them in sexual maturity — producing fruit, and healing well. Each tree is unique, and grows in its own way. Some are lop-sided, some have lots of dead branches, some grow straight up without much branching, some are a tangled mess, etc. etc. So each tree presents its own visual puzzle. How to prune for maximum fruit production?

The first decision is, what kind of pattern shall I see in this tree: does it at least sort of have one central trunk with branching off that all the way up? Or does it seem to be mostly shaping into a bowl formation with main branches all coming out of a central core in all directions? There is no right or wrong way to prune. Each decision changes the way the tree’s growth will occur; sometimes the only way to see the next decision to be made is to see what the tree looks like when you’ve already pruned the branch you just decided must go. You might see the tree differently than you thought you would before you pruned it. It’s kind of like life: we try to plan ahead, but each decision shapes the future in a new way that we often cannot see beforehand. So stay loose, move into the moment, and let each choice guide the next one. Practice makes . . . not perfect, but present — the ability to be present with the tree and the pruning it needs to produce fruit. Don’t be afraid!

Typical of the permaculture approach, pruning a tree turns into a design problem. Pruning a tree sculpts it. For example, you can decide which direction to make a branch grow in by looking at the leaves that are budding out. They grow in a number of directions. Prune that branch just above a leave that’s budding in the direction you choose that branch to grow.

Principle #2: Prune for light and air. Notice how an old tree that hasn’t been pruned has a great mass of tangled dead branches in its interior? Why? No light and no air. Sunlight fuels growth; circulating air keeps insects from finding a safe haven. All the sculpting decisions have these two needs as a priority. “You want to be able to throw your hat through the tree.”

Principle #3: Guard against infection. Make sure your tools are sharp and clean!  The wound from a dull tool leaves more surface area — access for infection. Nathan demonstrated the use and sharpening of the three tools he uses to prune trees, a giant lopper, plus two hand pruners of different types. He also uses a folding pull saw, and for really big branches, a chain saw. Also, clean tools with rubbing alcohol or bleach when moving from tree to tree. Take pruned material at least two miles away and burn or compost it, to prevent infection (similar genetic material increases risk). Don’t compost near the tree.

Five days later: Just got the notes that Shodo Spring took. Thanks, Shodo. So here’s more:

DWARFING: Dwarfing rootstocks are used so trees mature faster and are easier t pick. The root determines the size of the tree; M27 is standard (full size tree), smaller number result in smaller trees. Pear and apple can share rootstocks; various stone fruits can share rootstocks.

A standard tree may live 200 to 300 years; a dwarf tree 20-30 years. Apple trees are most susceptible to disease.

SHAPES: “central leader” (one main trunk, others branching off), “open bowl” (empty center and roughly symmetrical branches, common for stone fruits), “the V” (currently popular in commercial orchards, two main leaders).

AFTER PRUNING: It’s better to have fewer blossoms, resulting in larger, sweeter, healthier fruit. Thus thinning is advised. “June drop” is self-pruning, reducing the number of fruits after baby fruits appear. Later, look for crowded fruits, weaker ones, shaded or wormy fruits to remove. Rub off multiple bulds and small branches along the trunk (after the main pruning?).

PRUNING SPECIFICS: Remove up to one-third of the tree in a single year. A major pruning project thus could take several years. The cut should not go into the trunk, and should not create extra surface area — keep it flat. Cut may be a compromise between keeping it smooth to the trunk, and avoiding a large wound susceptible to disease. If a part is dead, damaged, or diseased, remove the whole limb. For holding fruit horizontal, vertical limbs not good, so remove verticals preferentially. Remove growth going towards the center of the tree. If there are lots of limbs coming out at the same place — either horizontally (around the trunk), or vertically (directly above/below each other), remove some; so the others will have more energy. Sculpt the tree by selecting the cut: the last bud left on a branch becomes the dominant branch , so consider its direction. Remove branches that cross or rub each other, which opens possibility of disease. Don’t paint a wound with tar or anything else . This is no longer considered good practice; it leads to disease. Remove watershoots (straight verticals; often don’t fruit). Fewer of them on dwarf trees, since they have less vigor.

MISCELLANEOUS: Apples love good drainage. If area is damp, plant tree in a mound for drainage. Stone fruits have a 75% chance of breeding true, so go ahead and plant them. Comfrey is good to plant under fruit trees; it has 10′ tap roots that mine minerals. It can be cut and left as mulch, or used, or just left. Most fruits (apple, pear, etc.) will fruit on second, third, fourth year wood and so forth. Peach trees only fruit on second year wood, so they need to be pruned every year so fruit will develop. Sour cherry is a naturally smaller tree, gets less brown rot than sweet cherry, and needs little pruning — just enough for easy picking. Rubbing off extra blossoms is good. Pear trees grow larger and do better when large, in vertical shape with central leader or pyramid.

Finally, here’s Nathan demonstrating to Sura how to sharpen a hand tool — very carefully, shaving a little bit at a time . . .

Note: We have a volunteer videographer for this year’s workshops, Laura Jesseph. Thanks, Laura! We will post several short videos from this workshop both here and on youtube once she has finished editing the raw footage.

Thanks everyone, for a beautiful, informative afternoon!



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