Prune Peaches and Plums

Fruit trees like peaches and plums need pruning when they become dormant. This will ensure the production of top-quality fruit in summer. If you’ve planted young fruit trees within the past two years and are now wondering how to train them properly, follow these steps to prune peaches and plums:

Sweet peach fruits growing on a peach tree branch

Peaches

Study your young tree carefully to identify a 3 – 5 strong side leaders (scaffold branches) that will grow and strengthen to give it an open, urn-shaped form to allow air and light into the centre of the tree, while exposing the remaining limbs to the maximum sun.

This year:
Cut the central leader (main stem) back to just above the top side leader you have chosen to remain. Cut this central leader back to 60 – 90cm above the soil level. Shorten the other chosen side leaders by two thirds. Completely remove all other side branches.

Next year:
Choose eight or more healthy side leaders that have developed, and cut them back by half. This will ensure that the growing tree will in future develop a strong framework of scaffolding branches. Remove all weak and crossing shoots or branches. In future: In the upcoming winters you should remove all weakly developed wood and thin branches that are too close together or crossing each other, keeping the shape and direction of strong side leaders in mind. Prune those back by half to a bud facing sideways or downwards.
Pruning, combined with proper fertilisation, irrigation and pest management, will give you a tree with a high yield of quality fruit, while the height and spread of the tree is controlled to make harvesting easier.

Prunes

Winter: Prune the central leader back to a height of 1.5m. Prune side limbs by half to buds facing downwards. Remove all side growth from the base of the tree to a height of 50cm above the ground.

Summer: After harvesting the fruit, you should remove parts of the new season’s growth to thin out the centre of the tree. Allow 15 – 20cm of the new season’s growth to remain on the tree.

Following winters: Keep shortening the main trunk’s previous season’s growth by two thirds. Repeat annually.

Following summers: Continue summer pruning after the harvest is done by shortening the new season’s growth points, keeping 15 – 20cm of the new wood. Remove weak and unproductive shoots.

READ MORE: Click here to read about Fruit Tree Troubleshooting

What To Do With Old trees?

If you have old trees that have been neglected as far as pruning is concerned, rejuvenate them by pruning them back very hard to about 1m high, and start training them as described the following year.

Expose the ‘goggas’

Dig over the soil around your deciduous fruit trees in the backyard about 2 – 3 times during winter to expose any overwintering insects and fungi spores to frost. The last dig is also your opportunity to create neat basins around each tree, which makes deep watering with a hosepipe, to get the moisture close to the roots, easier and less wasteful.