How to prune my Fruit Trees in San Diego

10 years ago

I live in San Diego and for the past 2 years, we had someone prune our fruit trees. The recent gardener did a terrible job last year so I need help on how to prune.

I have in the yard :
Fuji apple
Oro blanco grapefruit
Orange and Lemon tree
Asian pear
Persimon Tree (the flat one)
Persian Mulberry

Thanks for your help,

ZoeMom

Featured Answer

jean001a

10 years ago

This pub is from Oregon. But the same pruning works elsewhere, too.
Training & Pruning your home orchard
http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/22166/pnw400.pdf

Here is a link that might be useful: prune it

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

Bradybb WA-Zone8
10 years ago
Hi,
More information like how big they are and what your desire is that they should look like will help.And like the saying goes,a picture is worth a thousand words. Brady
0
Related Discussions
Growing Cameo apple tree in San Diego?
Q
Comments (3)
Well, depends on where you're moving to San Diego. San Diego proper, or around San Diego? We have SO many microclimates out here. If you're right, RIGHT on the coast, you may not have the fruit set you would have if you're a little bit more inland. Cameo is widely adapable to our S. California climates. Probably on par with Fuji for chill hours. A bit more than, say, Anna, Golden Dorsett, Pink Lady or Beverly Hills, but it should perform just fine for you. Welcome to San Diego county! And yes, many, many apple varieties will do well here. Patty S.
...See More
Best fruit trees for San Diego
Q
Comments (8)
Depends.... many people just walk by these things. I've seen loquats falling and rotting for the past 3-4 weeks. No one is eating them! I see fallen citrus/plums it's pretty sick. Some kind of market failure because people buy these things at the store yet they are rotting all around the neighborhood. I think OP will be okay. If he turns some passerby onto fresh fruit, that's a good thing.
...See More
anyone around san diego with manzanita or fruit trees?
Q
Comments (3)
In southern Arizona, manzanita only grows where the elevation reaches a certain height (couldn't tell you what it is, but town here is about 2,000 feet and it's probably a thousand feet or so higher than that before you see any in the mountains).
...See More
San Diego area, can a date and carob tree be grown here?
Q
Comments (4)
The carob can definitely be grown and fruited in the San Diego area. The date can be grown in the warmer parts of the county, but it will only fruit in the desert. A friend whose family have grown dates for over 80 years told me "to fruit dates you need 100 days of 100 degrees". If you have these conditions, then you can fruit dates.
...See More
alan haigh
10 years ago
The Oregon publication contains a lot of information but I doubt it will clear up much of the confusion about initial training of fruit trees.

If trees are on vigorous, free standing root stocks, one instruction that is very helpful is to remove all branches more than half the diameter of the trunk at point of attachment to the trunk and do very little other pruning until trees come into bearing. For apple varieties that are particularly vigorous you remove all branches more than a third the diameter of the trunk.

This will tend to create a relatively symetrical, compact and early bearing tree with strongly attached scaffold branches. Once the tree is bearing you can begin the process of height reduction and the selection of permanent scaffolds, even if you want an open center construction.

With this approach you will be making permanent decisions with a tree that is much easier to read in terms of seeing what needs to be removed compared to something so small that you have no idea about scale and what scaffolds will look like when they size up.

This is a method used all over the world by commercial growers of vigorous fruit trees but somehow has never made it into the literature of home orchard recommendations.

Commercial growers have to spend a lot of money to get their trees pruned and need their trees to come into production as soon as possible and this simple method of pruning by ratio saves on the time needed to educate the pruners and also to realize meaningful harvests. Trees with branches of smaller ratios bear younger and require less corrective pruning. Branches also are less likely to break under fruit load.

E-mail me for a copy of an article I've written on the subject if you'd like a more thorough explanation. It is actually a useful method of training all manner of trees- even things like maples and oaks, because it leads to the development of strong central leader trees unlikely to be damaged by storms.
0
User
10 years ago
Hi H-man,

I've tried to e-mail many times you using your e-mail address from your My page but have had no success.

I am not sure why. I just sent you e-mail a few minutes ago and the message said "Message Rejected".

My e-mail address on my My page is accurate. I have several Gardenweb members e-mail me directly.

I really wish I could send you private e-mail, too.
0
alan haigh
10 years ago
Well, I will risk it and just put my email down but put spaces where they don't exist. This should be one word- alan d haigh @ g mail. com
0
alan haigh
10 years ago
Strange, I was able to send myself an e-mail through gardenweb.
0
User
10 years ago
Just sent it again. It said Message has been sent. It should get to you this time.

Hope you could send me your article about pruning via e-mail, please. Thank you in advance.
0