Here's What Will Happen If You Prune Your Fruit Trees Too Early

Fruit trees are more than just a monetary investment. They are an investment in your property. Owing to the fact that it takes between 2 to 10 years for most fruit trees to reach maturity, you want to do your best to make sure that you are taking proper care of them. Pruning is one of the best ways to do this. It keeps your fruit trees healthy and at a manageable size. However, getting after your trees too early could end up spelling disaster for your orchard.

In general, you always want to prune your fruit trees in late winter after the severe cold has passed but before the trees have awakened from dormancy. Not only is it easier to remove damaged, diseased, or dead branches, but the vigorous growth this encourages in the spring helps the wounds heal faster. Choosing to prune too early, such as in autumn, quite literally opens up the trees to a whole host of potential issues.

Unless the branches in question are already dead, diseased, or severely damaged, do not prune them back in the fall. The growth in the trees is starting to slow down, meaning that they will not heal in time to be protected from the hard freeze of winter. This can cause winter injuries that actually end up weakening the tree. Fall pruning also opens the tree up to potential diseases. Peaches, for one, have an increased risk of developing cankers when pruned too early.

Have you ever wondered why your fruit trees aren't growing any fruit? There are a number of reasons for this. They could be too young, or sick, or myriad other things. But did you know that poorly timed pruning can actually affect the vitality and vigor with which your fruit trees produce a harvest?

As mentioned, when the tree is exposed to early pruning, the slowed growth will leave the tree open to winter damage, such as heavy freezes, and even certain diseases. As such, by the time spring rolls around, the tree's reserves are severely depleted. When this occurs, more energy is spent on trying to heal as opposed to supporting new fruit growth.

Instead, be patient and wait until late winter to prune your trees. This will actually encourage them to be more vigorous and send more of that important growing energy to healthy branches. So, by timing the removal of unhealthy branches, the tree spends its energy more wisely. Early spring and late summer are also acceptable times to prune, but this won't encourage nearly as much growth and can still open the tree up to potentially harmful diseases.