Depends on roots and cultivar of what species. 3 weeks pruning for 30 trees? That's not pruning that's meditation. That's watching the tree grow to determine how you're going to guide it.

I prune aproximately the equivalent of 50, say, 5-6 inch calibre, 12-14' high and wide apple trees a day (a 10-15 year old tree on 106). An amateur ought to be able to do a third that without getting too tired and taking a long lunch.

Only apples can be almost free of pruning time if you grow them on fully dwarfing rootstock. Peaches will become almost unmanagably sprawling. Pears will be narrow and extremely tall unless grown on quince although some pruning time will be saved with OHXF 333 rootstock. Pears are quick to prune anyway. Most Cherries on any rootstock will not be very fruitful if trees aren't trained hard. Plums are much easier on Citation (in my region) than Myro.

Varieties that have spreading growth habits are much easier than ones that are vigorous and upright and in apples the earliest fruiting, spurriest cultivars require very little pruning, such as Goldrush and Braeburn.

I can't imagine anyone pruning 50 good sized trees in one day. With a weed wacker, sure. But a good, thoughtful job??
How is the vigor in your orchard? Do you find some trees just need a few cuts?

I would prune that many non spur apple trees on seedling in a day. When I was a young man. Now I am smarter.

if ur pruning with a weed whacker call me...ill bring my camcorder! With some big shears, i bet u could trim a lot of trees in one day...

Pruning just doesn't take that long if you do it regularly. Sure it takes some time to learn. But you learn by doing. If you don't prune your spraying job will be much bigger. And much of the fruit will be out of reach.

Start with fewer trees and learn what it takes. Keep them small by regular summer pruning. Within a few yrs you will be an old pro and you can plant more trees if needed. Sure you may have a few foulups at first. But a poor pruning job is better than a huge tree. After a couple yrs you won't be fouling up.

I enjoy pruning as much as any of the other things we do.

The Fruitnut

I'm a commercial pruner and do pruning mostly on estates where ascetics are important and if a landscape archetect sees one stub-cut or some ripped bark he'll be calling me a hack. I also prune small commercial orchards from time to time- I get called back and payed $70 an hour (in a commercial orchard!) because I make fruit happen and I cut real fast.

It's not about talent, but when you do something 100 times more than someone else you are likely to become pretty good at it and if you get paid more the faster you work you will learn to make quick good decisions by developing a system.

Think about the fact that for the last 2 decades I've spent close to 900 hours a year pruning fruit trees-18 thousand hours. A hobbyist might spend a couple hundred hours their whole life and there would be so much time between experiences it would never become an actual skill.

This is the internet and you can't know if I'm speaking truth but you shouldn't assume I'm FOS either.

And Geraldo, I'm 57, so I guess it's too late for me to get smarter- but I bet you can still cut 50 of your peach trees in a day.

SEVENTY BUCKZ an hour? If I come back next winter can you find me some work? I will be happy to audition. I use to have a block of trees by the road and I would get guys stopping all of the time to ask for a job. I would give them the pruners and ask them to prune on a tree. More times than not I had to quickly grab the loppers away from them. The funny things is that all of the guys out looking for work around here are Latino, and since I am not, they somehow think I can't prune; when in fact it is ninety percent of them that just chop a tree with no idea of why or how. They just cut wood. It is rare to find someone who knows what to do with a tip bearer. They all think that the more they cut, the more I think they are earning their money. I had a guy once who watched while I pruned about ten trees to show him what I wanted. Went through them fast as I was leaving much for August cutting. He said ok and started out fine. I came back the next morning and he had reverted. It is like that all the time.
Fruitnut is right that if you have been training your trees you can go through them pretty fast. Much faster than if you have to stand there for a bit and figure out what you are going to leave.
It is interesting that you mention a stub cut. With French Axe that is exactly what I want. Leave a two inch stub for a renewal scaffold to grow. The guys I hire have a tough time with that. They have been taught to smooth cut on the big trees. I'll show up the next day to see how they are doing and we will both be looking at these trees and I just know they are looking at the stubs thinking I won't like it. It is just so against their training they can't get use to it. Even after I have repeatedly shown them what I want. Well, won't have to worry about that much longer as most of the apples are coming out. Just too much effort for too little return.
When I was younger I would spend November through March pruning my own trees. And hire some help too. Now I just hire most all of it.
PS I am called Geraldo even though I am not Latino. It is my name in Espanol. Ninety percent of the people around here are Latino of one kind or another, even my woman.

November through March pruning. Oh no! I wanted to sustain my delusion that I've spent more hours pruning fruit trees this century than any other American. If you also spent a month of summer mopping out suckers and stubbing your dwarfs spur wood you may have once logged in as much time as I do now. There may be others! My only claim to fame on this planet is in jeopordy. Oh well, maybe I should just shoot for largest ego.

It is funny how all the response here was to my slightly exaggerated pruning speed instead of the idea of spending 3 weeks pruning 30 average mature fruit trees. Now that's a true whopper.