Gadenin日本語Get the appCut after the crop is off and before the spring flush
Oranges fruit on the outside of the canopy on growth made in the previous year or two, and the tree carries its crop for many months. That combination narrows the pruning window to a short period after the last fruit is picked and before growth restarts in spring. Cut then and the wounds close during the flush that follows.
Pruning while fruit is on the tree simply throws away the crop, since the fruit is on the very wood you would be shortening. Pruning in autumn is worse: it provokes a soft flush at exactly the wrong moment, when it cannot harden before cold weather. If you have to remove a broken or diseased branch out of season, do it, but confine it to that branch.
Restraint is the general rule. An orange left entirely unpruned crops perfectly well; a hard-pruned one sulks, throws watersprouts and loses a season. In a normal year you should be taking out a wheelbarrow of wood at most, not reshaping the tree.
Never take more than about a fifth of the canopy in a single season on an established tree. Heavy cutting sends the tree into vegetative growth, delays fruiting by a year or more, and exposes bark that has never seen direct sun.
What to take out, in order
Work through the tree in a fixed sequence rather than wandering around it. Most of the useful cuts are obvious once you are looking for a category rather than judging each branch on its merits, and a sequence stops you cutting more than you meant to.
- Rootstock suckers first Anything arising below the graft union comes off flush, every time, no judgement required. Coarse leaves, long thorns and rapid growth identify them. This is the only cut on the list that is urgent at any time of year.
- Dead, damaged and diseased wood Cut back into live wood, judged by the green under the bark rather than by appearance. Take frost-damaged tips only after the spring flush has shown you exactly how far back the live tissue starts.
- Crossing and rubbing branches Where two branches rub, the wound never closes and it is a permanent entry point for disease. Remove the weaker or worse-placed of the pair completely rather than shortening both.
- Lift the skirt Remove low branches so nothing hangs within about two feet (60 cm) of the ground. Fruit that touches soil rots, and a clear skirt lets you mulch, water and inspect the trunk properly.
- Thin the dense center lightly Take out a few whole branches from the middle to let light and air in, rather than trimming all the tips. Tipping every shoot produces a dense shell of twiggy growth and a dead interior.
- Leave the outline alone Do not shear the outside of the tree into a shape. The fruiting wood is out there, and cutting it back uniformly removes next season's crop while producing nothing but a flush of replacement shoots.
Exposed bark burns, and other practical points
Citrus bark has no defense against direct sun. Open the canopy hard and the limbs you have exposed will scald: the bark cracks and lifts, and the branch dies back over the following year. If a cut leaves a major limb newly exposed on the sun side, paint it with white water-based paint diluted roughly half and half with water, or with a proprietary trunk white. It looks odd and it works.
Most oranges carry thorns, particularly on vigorous young growth and on any rootstock shoot. Wear thick gloves and long sleeves, and be aware that a thorn scratch across the skin of a maturing fruit becomes a permanent scar. Cut cleanly with sharp tools; a torn wound takes far longer to close than a clean one.
Clean tools between trees, and between branches if you are cutting anything you suspect is diseased. Wipe blades with alcohol. Do not seal wounds with a dressing; a clean cut just outside the branch collar closes on its own and a sealed one traps moisture underneath.
| Cut | Timing | Tool | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rootstock sucker | Any time, on sight | Thumb or pruners | Flush to the trunk, no stub |
| Dead tip after frost | After the spring flush | Pruners | Wait to see where live wood starts |
| Crossing branch | After harvest | Pruners or loppers | Remove one of the pair completely |
| Skirt lift | After harvest | Loppers | Clear about two feet (60 cm) of ground |
| Large limb | After harvest | Pruning saw | Undercut first so the bark does not tear |
| Newly exposed limb | Same day as the cut | Brush and diluted white paint | Prevents sunburn and bark cracking |
Keeping a pruning record
Photograph the tree from the same spot before and after each pruning, and note the date and roughly how much you took. Canopy change is slow enough that memory is useless over a season; a pair of photographs a year apart shows immediately whether your cuts opened the tree or whether it thickened straight back up.
Note where you removed suckers and how many. A tree that produces suckers in the same place repeatedly usually has soil or mulch creeping up the trunk, and the record is what makes you go and look rather than simply cutting them again.