Between work at Sonairte and the day job I haven’t had a chance to do any pruning at home – either in the orchard or around the garden. So here’s a quick overview of what I’ll be out doing again as soon as the rain eases up. After pruning each tree will get a about a two cm deep mulch of compost from the trunk right out to the edge of the branches and in the summer I try to keep an area around the trunk mulched with lawn mowings to keep the scutch down. Don’t forget to put a new grease band round the trunk at this time of year to catch pests that have overwintered in the soil.
You can increase the productivity of all these by summer pruning and I’ll be teaching a half day hands-on course on how to do this, and how to prune the plum and cherry family in July – contact info@sonairte.ie for details
Plums, cherries, peaches and apricots – leave strictly alone at this time of year. These must only be pruned in warm summer weather so they heal quickly and fungal spores don’t get in and kill them. Actually I could prune peach and apricot because I’ve got them in the polytunnel out of the rain, but I’ve been nipping back and tying in as they grew – they are only still babies – so they don’t need attention. For how well peaches can do in a polytunnel check Nicky Kyles garden diary to see the crop on a tree that she bought from Aldi only two years ago.
Grapes – These must be pruned before they start into growth – leave it too late and they will literally bleed to death. Sonairte gets a great crop from the vines on the south facing wall at the top of the garden. My garden is colder so I rely on the ones I grow in the tunnel and it pots in the conservatory. Some years I get a crop out of doors and some years I don’t. Basically, once you have a framework established you simply cut back to just leave two of last years buds on each rod.
Mulberries – I haven’t been growing these for long enough for my baby trees to need pruning but I’m simply going to take off growth that is out of reach. I find them great because they fruit over a long season – almost two months last year – and I love the icy crunch of them in the mouth. We developed a habit of standing under the tree for breakfast last year
Figs – I find that all I need to do is cut out any branches that are causing overcrowding and tip back the fruiting branches by about a third of the new growth. They crop wonderfully well in a tub if you only have a balcony – the most productive of balcony fruit in my experience.
Hazel – OK, its a nut not a fruit. Pruning depends what you want it for. I grow six different varieties of cob for nuts and I do what is called “brutting”. You walk round the big bushes in summer and snap the ends of any branches that don’t have a worthwhile nut crop on them – don’t snap the ones that have nuts on. You don’t need to break them right off – ragged is fine. Then this time of year go round again and trim these ragged ends to neaten them up. Sounds odd but it makes them form lots more fruit buds. You can take out all the crossing wood etc but I find that leaving them as natural as possible works best for me. I also grow the twisted hazel, which not only makes a nice decoration for the house at this time of year when the catkins will open indoors in a jug of water, but helps to pollinate the other bushes, I grow a red leaved one which looks lovely at the back of the border, particularly in spring and autumn, and I grow the ordinary hedgerow hazel and at this time of year I cut back a couple of bushes almost to ground level to use the poles to support runner beans etc this summer. It takes five to ten years, depending on conditions, for them to produce really good tall strong stems.
If my walnuts and chestnuts ever get big enough to need pruning – they’ve been in for twenty years now – I’ll let you know how to do it. They don’t crop worth mentioning in a cold wet north facing garden.
