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To keep your fruit trees producing bountiful harvests, they need a little annual pruning to keep them in top shape. Late winter, February, and March in Indianapolis are the best times to complete this pruning for most fruit trees. Pruning in late winter will encourage lush new growth, whereas pruning fruit trees in the summer will slow down further growth for a season. So pruning in winter will help your fruit trees get ready for a healthy growing season this year.

Pruning also has other benefits. It can help prevent diseases, prevent damage from storms, and keep your fruit trees more manageable in the future. Effective pruning makes it easier to identify potential issues early and keep your fruit trees healthy.

Ask for advice if you’re not sure how to prune your particular fruit tree.

Do	Don’t
Use sharp, sterilized pruners.	Remove more than 1/3 of the tree’s total volume per year.
Disinfect your tools between trees, so you don't spread bacteria or disease.	Prune newly planted saplings until the next growing season.
Remove diseased, damaged, or dead branches.	Paint over the cuts with any sort of healing balm.
Remove suckers and water sprouts.	Prune with dull or dirty tools.
Remove a branch if it rubs on another.	Hang off your ladder precariously or use it alone.
Make clean cuts on an angle.	Cut into the branch collar.
Do hire a professional arborist if you have very large trees.	Get carried away and prune too much; a little bit is better than too much.
Undercut larger branches to avoid breakage.	Compost or chip any branches with evidence of disease, burn them, or dispose of them in plastic bags.
Ask for advice if you’re not sure how to prune your particular fruit tree.	Prune at all if you're unsure of how.

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DIFFERENT TYPES OF PRUNING CUTS

Heading cuts are what you want to use when you want branches to put out bushier growth. Similar to pinching back bedding plants, heading cuts trim back the end of the branch, which will encourage it to put energy into remaining buds, and bush out into more branches.

Thinning cuts are more significant. Usually, thinning cuts involve removing entire branches to open up the center of the tree’s canopy to allow more light and air circulation. Thinning cuts are also made to prevent branches from rubbing against each other to avoid injuries in the tree.

SHAPING FRUIT TREES

The ideal shape for fruit trees to produce well is an open vase or goblet shape. This kind of shape gives the tree several strong limbs that don’t interfere with each other, with plenty of room for air and light to get into the tree’s canopy.

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ANNUAL PRUNING FOR OLDER FRUIT TREES

Spring maintenance pruning for established fruit trees usually involves removing suckers and water sprouts and making heading cuts to encourage bushier growth. Suckers are what comes up from the ground around or near the base of your tree, from the roots. These suckers drain energy from your tree and should be removed as soon as you see them.

Water sprouts appear on branches as new twigs going straight up towards the sky. These also waste energy and often interfere with other limbs of the tree and should also be removed when you see them.

The last pruning task for established fruit trees is heading back. As mentioned above, heading cuts encourage your tree’s limbs to bush out more instead of stretching longer. This will help keep your trees to a manageable size and height and prevent branches from breaking under heavy loads of fruit.