“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. - John 15:1-5
So as we consider pruning, the goal of pruning is produce more and better fruit. And I would emphasize the better fruit. Most mature fruit trees have no trouble bearing fruit. The trouble is, that fruit is not very good. In fact, most apple trees you see around the country that have not been cared for for many years, bear fruit that is barely eatable because they are small and wormy.
As we look at our own lives, we can see a mixed bag of fruit. Some good and some bad. We have some habits or attitudes that are bad and maybe some that are good. We could all use some pruning by God to make us more like Him. We need to allow Him to prune us by surrendering what we want to what He wants for us. And He will be able to change us through trials.
Pruning Tools
Recommend Shears
Recommend Loppers
Recommend Saws
Tree Structure
To have a tree that produces good fruit and is easy to work with, it is important for it to have a good structure.
There are two popular tree structures that work well. One of them is shaped like a bowl and the other is shaped like an umbrella.
The large branches that come off the trunk are called bench branches. They provide the main structure and shape of the tree.
For the vase shape, you want to select branches about 2-3 feet off the ground and leave them to develope. The main trunk above them and be cut and removed. You want 3-5 bench branches on a fruit tree.
For the umbrella shape, you want to slowly prune off lower branches as the tree gets taller leaving a center trunk until you have selected 3-5 bench branches at about 6-8 ft high that come out horizontal from the trunk. Once you have selected some good strong bench branches, a year later you can cut off the main trunk above them.
Keep pruning off the upward and downward pointing shoots and leave some of the horizontal side shoots to form a flat leaf shape to the main branch. You will want to select shoots at the end of the branch that are pointing out away from the trunk and slightly down to start bringing down the limbs as the grow farther from the trunk. At about 3-4 feet from the trunk, the bench branches should fork and select for two main branches coming from the bench branch. Pick one on each side of the bench branch that are pointing about 90° from each other. Prune away branches between them until the branches are far enough away from each other to support side branches between them without them overlapping. After about another two feet, those branches can fork again as there is enough space to allow for it.
Second year side shoots of the main branches will produce fruit. Keep the side shoots pruned back to they don’t interfere with each other. You can keep pruning to the same point on side branches each year to keep them the same length. The shoots will get larger diameter each year.
OSU Extension Service, Pruning Basics
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