Thank you for this video! After acquiring 53 trees in an orchard at my home, it was time to prune them. A visit to a local orchard showed what to do but not how to get there. So I charged in. This video confirmed that what I did was right. I liked Kasmir’s explanations because he explained everything in a very clear and understandable way.
I liked the explanations etc., but would have liked to have seen more of a close up of the tree in question as he was making cuts; as well as explanations of why he was choosing that branch i.e. dead wood, crossing, shading, etc.
Great video. Maybe you do this, but I like to gather some of the pruned off branches that have buds on them. I put them in large vases with water and they bloom...early spring indoors.
I enjoyed the video but feel super frustrated that just as the real pruning and decisions started, the music kicked in and the speed and I couldn’t follow what was going on. In the end it’s not instructional. Having said that, most of your videos are fantastic and I’m grateful for them 👍 Thank you.
This is the best advice of all the fruit tree pruning I've seen especially dealing with water sprouts that go crazy on my trees. I'll not take it all off in the future and deal with it this summer. Thanks.
Amazing video!!! I wished I had seen this video 15 years ago but it was meant for me to see it now. Some of the techniques I already knew but so much information I didn't know and learned. I loved the idea that there is no real right or wrong except a couple of things and not to stress about it or be afraid to prune. "Learn as we grow"
Thank you Josh and Casimir for the video. It was great. We have two trees, one crabapple and one apple, that had gone for years without pruning. The trees are much taller than we would like so your tip about cutting some but not all of the suckers to slow the growth down was very helpful.
I have 4 really old apple trees in the garden (in the UK), I've been here 10 years and have made practically every mistake you mention with them, yet they're still alive. I'm now dealing with a thicket of water sprouts and plenty of disease, but hoping it's going to be ok. All of them have cropped heavily in the past (till I had them savaged!), one with beautiful big desert apples, and I really want them fruiting well again... this gives me hope. And I'm going shopping for that Opinel saw, it's so cool. Thanks guys, this is the best and most informative video on the subject I've found.
this is exactly what I was looking for, I needed all my previous reading from my dads Landscape architects reference books on tree pruning material to come together in a common sense way,and you guys are awesome.Thank you from Courtenay on Vancouver Island B.C
Thanks for this. I never thought about different kinds of fruit trees needed such varied pruning practices. Teaches me that I need to speak to more aborists.
oh this is so cool. I live in the pacific northwest, in Graham washington, and i have a 150 year old APPLE tree that produces APPLES up to 8 inches diameter. I have no idea what the variety it is but the person that i bought the land from has passed away but when he was alive he said his grandpa planted it, he said there is one more near by and that's it. it would be really nice to know what variety it is or what is the name or where its from originally. I do have a pruning video of it on my channel
Do you ever used the pruned limbs to sprout new trees? Also a lot of permaculture is about chopping and using the branches as mulch to build organic matter and cover the soil. I know you primary focus of this video is about pruning but these things go hand in hand don’t they?? Thanks Josh As always great job on the video! To hot and so many cutter ants here in central Texas for many types of fruit trees. Anyhow thanks again!!!!
UC Santa Cruz Center of Egroecology has the best explained reasoning for pruning with all details. From the growing branches to budding limbs to trim for healthy trees. ❤ Love your videos this one, off just a bit. 😮
Loads of information! Thank you! Great timing, I’m pruning my neglected fruit tree for the first time this weekend! I was so nervous to hurt the tree but feel much better now! A little at a time! 🌱🐝🦋 Martine 🇨🇦
Thanks for this! We planted an orchard in our ordinary urban garden about three years ago and now need to prune these trees - all 15 of them. I'd love to know how to handle young fruit trees. We definitely need to improve airflow and open up some of them, especially the stone fruits. When to prune those seems to be an issue of great debate. Everywhere I look, I get a different answer.
The best way to know when to prune is to call your county's agricultural extension (in the US). They have master gardeners on hand who can answer your questions and inform you of any specific pests/diseases in your area that might be a problem and what time of year to prune to best avoid them.
A walk around the tree before, during, & after & w/ explanations would've been a great visual for most people. It's hard to really tell which branches are going where, & their size & shape when the camera is stationary. Much like Disney"s Quasimodo, there are different views from different angles.
Thank You guys! What a great empowering video. I knew zero about pruning fruit trees. I just inherited about 20 fruit trees in Cd'A, right smack dab in the middle of Suburbia. haha I am still curious about how to deal with some of the structural(main) branches that to me seem way too tall. Im looking at one that has 6 other branches all coming out of the top of that too tall branch. Can I cut below that about 2 feet? Would I do a horizontal cut? I really want to get good at this. I have cherries, peaches, plums, pears and I believe apricots. Are the rules generally the same for all of them? Thank you both.
What advice would you have for pruning an apple tree that has 4-5 trunks and all the fruit is out of reach in the canopy? 80% of our apples are harvested after they fall because we can't reach them with a ladder PLUS a 20ft pole picker. I'd like to force lower growth and create a central leader again with branches we can reach from the ground (or even a stepladder), but how many years will it take for the tree to recover from such hard pruning back and produce fruit again? No real idea on the age of the tree, but the main trunk is at least 18" at the base and the tree is more than 50' high. It's been a real gift as far as production, but it's mostly bruised fruit that can only be processed or eaten immediately before it spoils.
Hi, Mr Arborist. At 14:00 minutes: You know that the ISA does not recommend flush cuts. You (should) also know that making wounds close to the same diameter as a parent limb is also regarded as poor workmanship. What you should deduce (if you are an experienced arborist) is that making wounds that are as small as a baby's finger is better than one wound the thickness of your wrist. Further, and hopefully, readers are listening; do not neglect your fruit tree and then try to play catch-up as more harm is done. Every wound that is the thickness of a wrist decays the diameter of the cut. Of course, callus attempts to close over a wound, but wood decay ALWAYS wins. So, is this advice good? If you are attempting to reduce the tree's life, yes, you have succeeded. An arborist worthy of his creed would not publicize making the types of harmful wounds you have made. "Heal", I know rapid decay will form and infect the trunk and branches. Does it really matter, given that you are a pinprick on a map? No, it matters not. Look at what's presented and know how much harm you are disseminating, and you will be remembered for that.
Great video and beautiful apple tree. I am assuming this method applies to 🍒 cherry trees??? This is the same method I use on my Japanese Maples. I have 2 cherry trees that are 55 years old. The previous owner said they were planted when the house was built. They are overgrown and I cannot reach the cherries. I would like to prune for the same reasons you had w/your apple tree. Accessibility, production and bringing the height of the trees down. Zone 8b WA. PNW PS. Do you have a follow up video of the apple tree? After the prune I thought your apple tree looked to be standing gracefully and thanking you for the haircut 😊
Great to see this video. I have a Gravenstein apple tree that I’ve been trying to reclaim over the last two years. I’m tackling it today for the third year and find this video a great refresher. I am also trying to manage a 100 plus year old pear tree and happy to get anything off it for its age. It was hard to hear what you said regarding pear trees cause the wind gust overwhelmed your microphone but since the answer was short I assume he said similar to apple trees. I am also glad to see I can wait a bit for my plum tree. Do you have any suggestions for managing thorny, tall Hawthorn trees? I have one that is so hard to manage because it gains so much height each year and water sprouts. Thanks so much for your video.
We have inherited 3 pear trees that are around 20+ feet tall. I'd love to know what the advice is to get these down to a shorter version that can be harvested. We have a lift on our full-size tractor, and using it with a man-lift box, we still cannot reach the top where most of the fruit is. Ideas, advice?
I have a few dozen trees like this on a property I hunt... the suckers are about the same and the task is just so daunting. I wish I had a light saber to just slice them off lol
I have an Apricot tree I started from seed a few years ago and now it's approx 5' tall. I pruned it this past early December and took off one main branch that was competing with what I considered the trunk. I live in a place that never gets below 40 so I wasn't worried about the season I was pruning in...I hope that's o.k. So now it's spring and I've been waiting for it to bloom...the stump of the big branch I pruned had green leaves showing a week and a half ago but the rest of the tree just barely started to show any green. It doesn't look like I'm going to get buds this year and I was wondering why? Last year I only got a few buds and thought that was odd. Thanks.
Hello. I live in central KY and have always been told to prune or uproot in the fall her. Is this true? Thanks😊 We have one winesap that’s never been pruned.
Thanks for this info! I recently moved to a home that has a large (maybe 20+ yr old) Apricot tree. This tree splits off into 2 trunks a few inches off the ground. Each trunk produced substantial fruit, but I would like to remove one because I want to free up some of the garden of all the shade produced. (I'm in California, I need every square inch) Will it kill the whole tree if I were to cut off one of the trunks? Thank you!
No. Never top any tree. Seek out you local extension office for more information, or reputable garden center for professional advise to confirm what I have stated. You cannot force a tree to stay at a height you want. The trees characteristics determine it's height. There are some varieties that are supposed to be dwarf, I would still need a ladder for them, but they are shorter.
@@lisafeck1537 thank you :) unfortunately our local extension office is useless :/ i will ask the nursery where we bought several of them. the reason i asked that is because on this video they talked about keeping the fruit trees at a manageable height, so i assumed that meant you could prune it in such a way as to control it's height.
That tree is short I have to say it doesn’t look like it’s been neglected for years, not compared to my apple trees which are very tall. I can’t locate anyone with the same issue. So I know I should do this at end of winter.The wind makes this hard to hear.
Oh... I always take out all the suckers. I'll have to try just thinning them this year. Did you just thin the whole thing or only on the top area? I'm trying to confirm what he said.
There was a lot of good information but lots of extra chit chat making it hard to get to the meat of the information. Also, more close ups as he was talking about specific branches, etc so we know what he's pointing at. Appreciate the info but left lots of holes as examples weren't pointed.
I have been planting and trying to prune fruit trees for years.. I have got snippets here and there fron people and even taken a master gardener course and still wasn't comfortable pruning my tree's
Guys, thanks for trying to take us through this, but all we got to see was a black tree against a black background from 30 yards into the sun i.e. nothing.
Some very valuable information. During the time I had to listen to music you were obviously deciding which branches to remove. A waste of valuable information.
Really wish you would have talked about what to do as you were doing it. Speeding up makes it so we miss what's going on. It sounded like good into but just didn't get what you were doing in the speed up.
If I could chime in here, Arbor Day Foundation. They have an incredible program to not only sell you trees, but if you give them a donation, they will send you a bunch of them. I’ve been buying trees from them for years and they are of excellent stock. They send a booklet describing the tree, how to plant it and when to prune it. They are also very helpful.
They are many reputable online fruit tree sources, where you are able to select varieties that are on appropriate rootstock for your area and gardens size. Most trees are grafted these days
I feel like I missed out on the actual instruction during the process and got banjo music instead. Also you talked over your guest and repeated a lot of what he said. It would have been nice just to let him talk.
Sheesh. Brutal. I was so distracted by the power struggle I couldn't even absorb what they were saying Let the man talk. If u have some on ur show to give advice let them give it. even if u already know it all , just let the man talk. U can be dominant and be passive. And that's more respectable. U might actually learn something. But u have to ACTUALLY listen
