-8- 



phane of pruning. The first impression is usually the best. When the tree is 

 finished do not keep trying to find more cuts to make. They are relatively 

 unimportant and slow up the pruning operation. 



Organize your pruning I Make the most essential cuts first. You can then 

 more readily determine the remaining cuts to be made. If you use a saw and 

 lopping shears or pole pruner, a good system to follow is to make the necessary 

 saw cuts from the ground and then in the top of the tree. After this is done 

 prune with the lopping shears or pole pruners in the top and work back towards 

 the ground and then finish the job with the shears from the ground. 



Prune as follows: 



1, Remove broken and diseased branches. 



2o Remove water sprouts which are not needed to protect branches from 

 sunscald or to provide for branch removal. 



3. Eliminate crossing and parallel branches which tend to shade more 

 desirable branches. 



4. Remove weak drooping branches which are severely shaded and have few 

 fruiting spurs. 



5. Remove branches which are growing toward the center of the tree. 



6. Remove suckers which arise at the base of the tree. 



7o Reduce the height of excessively tall trees by complete removal of a 

 branch or by heading back to a strong outward growing lateral. 



8o Head back canopy forming limbs in the middle to top section of the tree. 



Water sprouts in the tops of the trees present a problem when trying to 

 control height. Retain those that tend to bend or encourage them to bend by the 

 removal of shoots on the side opposite the desired direction of bending. If a 

 "stiff" water sprout must be retained, head back to a strong lateral. The 

 practice of merely heading back a Vi^ater sprout will only encourage new upright 

 growth from the promixity of the pruning cut. 



Max G. Fultz 



Regional Agricultural Specialist 



I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 



