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Green Acres Landscaping Resource Center

Prune Your Fruit Trees for Optimal Results

Fruit-bearing trees are a wonderful – and often delicious – addition to your Northern Virginia landscape. Apple, cherry, pear, peach, plum, and many other fruit trees need help keeping healthy in order to produce quality fruits. The key to keeping fruit trees healthy is pruning them annually. Pruning is done for growth control purposes, as well as to remove dead or diseased wood and allow the growth of new flowers and fruit buds. Cutting off the old brings in the new.

Annual pruning of fruit trees should be performed on the entire tree. Pruning calls to keep the center of the tree open so air can circulate, remove dead or diseased wood, and prevent the crossing of branches. You should also trim limbs that are too long, as they are more apt to bend and break, as well as any shooters growing low on the base of the tree.

Do not prune your fruit trees during their growing season, which usually spans from April to September. The best time to prune is February and March, or if you cannot prune in the winter months, prune in October or November. A general rule of thumb is to remove up to 20 percent of the tree; any more may cause the tree to work to hard to replace its missing limbs, rather than produce quality fruit. However, pruning amounts vary for each type of fruit-bearing tree.

In addition to pruning, you should make sure the grass under your fruit trees is cut and free of debris. Keeping the area around your fruit trees clean and free of fallen leaves helps make sure leaf-borne diseases do not affect your tree and so mice and other small animals do not have a place to live by your fruit tree, and subsequently eat their bark.

For more tips on caring for your fruit trees, as well as expert advice on landscaping and hardscaping services, contact Green Acres Landscapes, providing everything from small landscape renovations to complete design and installation services throughout Northern Virginia.

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Green Acres Landscaping is a full service landscape design company, serving both residential and commercial clients in the Northern Virginia area since 1992. Our experienced team is ready to help you with any landscaping project, large or small.

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