Pruning

June 2009 | Craig Hornblow, AgFirst | Future Orchards® slideshow

This Future Orchards® pruning slideshow provides a practical framework for managing canopy structure, vigour and fruiting wood. It reflects the program’s move toward simple rules that can be communicated clearly to orchard staff.

The key pruning objective is to retain a productive, well-lit canopy while removing branches that are too vigorous, dominant or shaded to contribute high-quality fruit. Calm, slightly pendant fruiting wood is preferred to upright vegetative growth.

The slideshow also supports the use of measurable targets for branch numbers, fruiting-wood length and future crop load so pruning can be linked to production rather than judged only by appearance.

For growers, the value of the resource is its focus on repeatability: a small set of pruning rules can improve tree-to-tree uniformity and make supervision more effective.