I was pruning again today. Still have plenty more to do but the whole bed along the side of the house is done. It was still chilly this morning, a crust of ice was on the birdbath water. I waited until afternoon and it warmed up. The spring pruning is lots of work because I have lots of HTs and those of course need lots of pruning. But I prune down everything including my Floribundas and shrub roses. Doesn't make much difference on HTs, they just grow tall no matter what but on the Floribundas and shrub roses it does encourage them to grow nice and thick and twiggy instead of tall and lanky. Most of the HTs are on Dr Huey but I did order some roses two years ago that were grafted on Multifloria. I noticed that they grew much slower than the ones grafted on Dr Huey. So I did not cut them back quite as much. Also, this is a very unscientic observation but the ones on Multiflora have no canker and did not really NEED to be cut back while the HTs on Dr Huey always have lots of canker canes and need a strong prunning in the spring. As they are all treated all the same and planted in the same beds I do not know what else it could be but rootstock.

If I were you, I would only thin out the fruits instead of pruning the tree. Remove the fruits from the outermost area of the canopy, remove from the outermost limbs of the thin branches. This will help your branches carry the remaining fruits and more so if they are closer to the trunk. Your fruits would be bigger and better quality compared to thinning them out by pruning. Citrus trees tend to develop skirt (lower canopy) around its trunk to protect it from sunlight burns, and usually the skirts are only pruned to prevent it from touching the ground. Citruses are usually not pruned unless if the time comes when you value structure more than fruit production. You prune when the tree shape doesn't suit your style, or some branches are diseased, touching the fences or house and other structures or interferes with other things for one reason or another. But if you do prune, do it in late spring to early summer. You need all the canopy you can use to tide over the winter. And should occasional frost drops by for a visit, your tree is more protected. And if some branches die off, which usually are the uppermost, you shouldn't remove them until the dangers of frosts are over. During the winter, you would need those dead branches for added cold protection just in case. You will know for sure which branches have surely died and will not recover by late spring to early summer, that is why you prune at that time to remove the dead branches. Plus, never prune when there are rains coming as it could make your tree susceptible to diseases. Late spring to early summer, usually is a lot drier than fall and winter. So that's another incentive to prune at that time should you really need to prune your citrus tree. I for one seldom prune my tree, but for balancing it, I simply graft more cultivars to it like shown in the link here: The ultimate multi-grafted citrus tree

you know what a whorl is.. its the buds at the tip .. one vertical.. however many horizontal ... I THOUGHT ... once those are 'set' .. thats it on bud formation for the year.. they will switch hormones.. and do something else ... I THOUGHT.. you try to do the pruning.. BEFORE buds are set.. so new buds will be re-set below the cut ... before the hormones change ... any truth ... TO WHAT I WAS TOLD.. or the concept behind it??? its another way of saying.. there are NO dormant buds.. and if you cut off the ones already there.. there arent any hidden ones to trigger future growth [like a maple e.g.].. and that bud-less stick .. will die ... back to the next bud branch ... ken

I follow a blog on Southern Living's website by Steve Bender, and he just posted about pruning crepes saying that now is a good time to do it. I linked to the blog post below, partially because there's a link at the bottom of the page to another blog post describing the correct way to prune a crepe myrtle, but mostly because he's running a contest right now where people submit pictures of badly pruned crepe myrtles. The winners get a prize! Here is a link that might be useful: The Grumpy Gardener