Gardening tips for late June: Summer prune fruit

Encourage shoots to form fruiting buds this on this year’s fruit trees buy judicious summer pruning

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apple tree

Training apples and pears on a wall, fence or tunnel is a happy blend of use and beauty. The framework is gently worked into shape earlier in the season, while the tissue is still delicately flexible, but now is the time to enhance future productivity of trained apples and pears by summer pruning, which involves shortening wayward longer growths arising from the main framework of branches. Head back such shoots of the current season's growth to four or five buds. This will encourage the pruned shoots to form fruiting buds, rather than meander on with yet more superfluous foliage.

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