LATE SUMMER FRUIT TREE CARE AND PRUNING

hey folks this is Josh Donnie rich farmer welcome to the farm vlog today today we're going to be working in the orchard here so if you look up at the top of the hill we've got our garden back here we've got our orchard right here we've got some honeybee stands right there and we're going to get in the orchard and show you what we do for a little bit of summer pruning on our fruit trees so it's about the middle of July and we want to go in and trim back some of our fruit trees now we trim back some of our trees last winter and if you didn't catch that video it'll be right here winter pruning and summer pruning are two totally different birds so when you prune in the wintertime you're pruning for growth and when you prune in the summertime you're pruning to cut back so we're going to take you in the orchard we'll show you a few different trees and a few different ways that we prune our trees now I don't claim to be a tree expert but I do have about 65 fruit trees and this is how I prune them and I've been very successful with it so let's get in the orchard together and learn a little bit about summer pruning on your fruit trees alright so first of all let me talk to you a little bit about the orchard and what we have growing here we have a lot of apple trees we have a row of pear trees right here and we have a lot of peach trees and a few plum trees and stuff like that up in the garden area but mostly it's apple trees and we won't apple tree so we can make our own cider so we can make our own vinegar and so we can have apples so let's take you to the apple trees first and we'll show you we've already cut back our pear trees and I got in here this afternoon and started cutting back trees and I thought you know what I should make a youtube video about this so here we are and I'll show you a few of the trees that we're working on and a few things that are good food for thought but printing your trees so here we are at a crossroads in time in the summertime when your trees start to grow when they start to put on foliage okay so we're getting to where the summer time might start to cool down a little bit and the trees will start putting out new foliage now you don't want them to waste their energy putting out new foliage on branches that are just undesirable so we're going to look in here at this tree right here and go through some of the branches that are undesirable and the reason why they're undesirable so folks what we're looking at right here is about a three year old apple tree okay and what we have are three major branches coming off of this apple tree we have another branch that blossomed out this spring and we really don't need that branch these extra branches right here that it popped out there from our pruning in the fall and we want to get rid of those guys we want to let this tree flourish on just these three main branches so what we'll do is we'll come in here and we'll cut back just back here all the way up next to the stalk okay I want to get rid of all that stuff those are just undesirable okay what you want to do is open up the inside of this tree right here to allow lots of light to come in to feed your fruit now we're not really looking for this tree to be a fruiting apple tree for at least probably another two years but we want to set it up for success to have a successful fruiting tree so the basic gist of what we're doing is training this tree to be a big beautiful wonderful tree okay so what we're gonna do also we're gonna go in we're gonna see stuff again that's just undesirable okay this little guy let's get him off of there we're gonna cut it right back as tight as you can to the tree this guy right here undesirable want to get him out of there now if you look at this this branch right here it's asymmetrical with the tree okay so what we see here is that this branch is shading this branch so we want to cut this guy back just a little bit okay just a little bit and set him up for success right there okay now you don't want to go scalping your trees that looks pretty good right there we're going to move on to the next tree and I'll show you some of the branches on this apple tree right here so what we've got here now are one to three major branches and we're shooting out a fourth major branch right here what you really don't need we've got this growth right here in the center of the tree we probably want to get rid of that guy right there first thing so we're going to nip him off okay now you see this guy reaching out and this guy growing up we want to go ahead and nip off the Reacher I'm gonna get that guy out of there okay basically what you're trying to do is train your trees to be symmetrical as symmetrical as possible this branch right here is just wasting energy okay I want to get rid of it I want this branch to be large and girthy so that it supports weight once this tree starts to bear fruit okay so here we are we've got a couple of little stragglers down low I want to get rid of those guys get them out of there and that way the tree doesn't waste its energy we're gonna leave this one leave this one and this one and this one three major branches right there now we could take this guy out but we're gonna wait and see how it does okay basically folks you just want to get in here and you want to see what looks right what is symmetrical and what is gonna make your tree start to flourish okay now you can see inside here we're just too crowded we have one two three of these limbs right here that are growing up tight we want to go ahead and take out one of them and leave the most healthy limbs right there we also have this guy which I debated about before but he's growing up in the middle we're gonna get rid of him too okay now let's walk over to one more tree and we'll show you a little bit and talk to you a little bit more about what we've got going so this tree right here is just a disaster right in the center it's just a disaster you want to take out some of these branches that are taking up the center of the tree right here and these are the branches and we're going to take off again we're shooting for one two three four major branches one two three four so three or four major branches is all we need to think about we've got this one it's growing inward and when I get him out of there I've got a couple more that are growing inward we want to get it out of there we want to get those inward growing branches out of there so that more light can get into the center of that tree and promote more fruit growth you guys see this great old big straggler right here you want to get that guy out of there to cut them back as close to the trunk of the tree as you possibly can basically we're just standing out the center of this tree so that it can promote good healthy growth now that looks 100% better than it did before doesn't it well folks I'm not going to take you around and show you every tree in the orchard and show you how I trim it I just wanted to give you an idea of the gist of the thought process behind what we're doing here we want to open up the center of the tree we want to get any branches that are growing in any wrenches that might be criss crossing each other any branches that might be shading one another and we want to open that tree up so we can get good vigorous growth on the branches that we choose for it to keep and to grow our beautiful fruit tree now the thought process here also is you want to be able to pick your fruit without getting on a ladder so all these trees are basically the dwarf variety of tree and if you don't want the dwarf variety all you got to do is bury it up past the root graft most of the trees that you get at your local nurseries will be the dwarf tree okay if you don't want a dwarf bury it up past the graft site and you'll see that later on in some more videos that we do on tree care okay so guys thanks a lot I hope you enjoyed this like I said open that tree to air catch any branches that are overlapping or shading each other and grow your trees the way you want to we're planning this for fruiting over the next ten to twenty years so you really gotta establish a good base a beautiful tree and do it right the first time and as I always say it's your orchard it's your masterpiece so you can trim your trees any kind of way you want to I just wanted to show you some ideas on pruning your trees for the summer so thanks a lot guys be sure and found that like button subscribe to the channel and we'll see you next time on the Stoney Ridge farm all right made on a stone Erie [Music]