06/12/2025
WINTER PRUNING / TOCIO YN Y GAEAF - part 1: Established Freeform Trees. Far too many pruning books conflate formative pruning (creating the shape of a new fruit tree or unbranched maiden) with the regulative pruning of older free-form trees. Here we focus on the latter.
Winter is pruning time for our pome fruit (apples, pears) while the trees are dormant. It’s the time we sort out structure and check on disease. For established older trees which we’ll consider today, it’s too easy to put off the winter prune if you’re too busy, daunted by the larger size, or scared to get it wrong. But don’t ignore it, just be methodical & prioritise the first three of the four magic ‘D’s’. Dead, Diseased, & Damaged, and only do ‘Dodgy’ at the very end. Use clean sharp tools & cut back to clean wood, with a slanting cut that slopes away from an outward facing bud & that allows water to drain away. With older trees you must always winter prune with a light touch. Be gentle on the old folks. Aim for a good 15% so that you don’t go over 20%. For that final ‘D’, i.e. dodgy, we primarily mean rubbing & crossing branches (which will become damaged and therefore diseased), and only after they’re sorted look at the ones with wayward directions.
Each main scaffold bough from the centre will have its own lateral and sub lateral branches. A useful tip is to grab hold of the ends of your main scaffold boughs & give them shake so you can see how their laterals & sub laterals compete with those of the next scaffold bough. This can help decide which of any rubbing or crossing branches take priority or which need reducing or cutting out. If you’ve budget left from your 15% / 20% after all that then look to reduce congestion by pruning back anything growing back into the centre. But if you’ve used up your budget before this stage, just walk away. Don’t over prune older trees in winter. Just label any branches that need to come out with some bright ribbon & leave until the summer. Over pruning in winter produces a sap pressure reaction in spring giving you a thicket of unwanted water shoots. Any branches with ribbons can come out when the sap is risen during your summer prune.
But remember, if you only do the first three easy D’s you’ll have done your trees a massive favour. So don’t use confusion over the trickier stuff as an excuse to do nothing!!!
Ps. Although we only prune mature ‘stone’ fruit like plums & cherries in summer time, the winter is a very good time to check them for damage & congestion, and to label any branches for summer removal while the leaves are off and everything is more visible. Good luck / Pob lwc! X ✂️🍎🌳
