Pruning Bearing Citrus Trees 
A. M. Tilden, Winter Haven 
The subject assigned to me is one of 
absorbing interest and I believe, of far 
greater importance than the average 
grower thinks. It is one to which I have 
devoted a great deal of thought and time 
and yet I have probably never done a sat¬ 
isfactory job of pruning. 
One would be adventurous indeed to 
stand up in front of you and attempt to 
lay down definite rules and regulations in 
pruning, for there are probably as many 
different opinions about pruning as there 
are about the prohibition question. And 
so, with your permission, I will merely at¬ 
tempt to outline in a broad way, my own 
general ideas. 
While we always speak of the citrus 
tree as a tree, it is nevertheless, I think, 
somewhat of a bush. It should be grown 
and pruned with that in mind. We are 
not trying to grow a tree with a tall trunk 
and large branches that may later be cut 
into framing timber, but rather we are 
trying to grow a great number of small 
branches and twigs that may bear fruit 
and offer us as large a bearing surface as 
possible. My ideal tree is one that is 
headed low, that spreads out instead of 
going up in the air and that has a surface 
of bearing wood from the ground all 
around up to the top; one on which the 
picker starts work upon his knees and fin¬ 
ishes on the top of his ladder. A tree 
shaped and grown in this way presents the 
maxium bearing surface and certainly, all 
other things being equal, the number of 
boxes of fruit is in direct ratio to the 
amount of bearing surface. 
On the inside of the tree, that is infre¬ 
quently pruned, we find a large accumu¬ 
lation of dead branches and in addition to 
that, we find insect life very numerous 
and the combination of small dead wood 
and insects generally result in the smoth¬ 
ering out and killing of all the inside wood 
of the tree. And so, when we come to 
prune, we are compelled to remove every¬ 
thing from the inside of the tree, leaving 
no fruiting wood but just an empty shell. 
On such a tree fruit may only occur upon 
the thin surface of twigs and leaves 
around the outside. 
But, if light and frequent prunings are 
given and the accumulation of dead wood 
prevented, then there may be grown a lim¬ 
ited amount of inside wood which will 
bear fruit and increase both the bearing 
surface and capacity of the tree. 
These frequent light prunings are, I 
think, no more expensive than infrequent 
heavy prunings and they will gradually 
result in a material increase in the bearing 
surface of the tree. 
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