Thanks, that really makes my day.

I'm happy for you Mark! Pruning and training have been rather difficult for me but as you, I think I'm am beginning to understand it in a practical way now after 4 years of practicing it. For some reason, the peach has been rather easy, apples, hard and pears, totally daunting. One time, I even got so overwhelmed I laid down on my back under the oldest tree and stared up through it for a different perspective before starting to prune it, that actually helped. Seems every year is a new adventure when it comes to pruning and training the trees, always something to learn.

Well, I don't say that I'm there yet! And it has been more than four years for me ... I think I will try your idea of lying down on my back, too.

As you say, always something to learn.

Good luck,

M

No doubt harvestman inputs have been great for the home gardeners. Many appreciate it. And there are others as well in this and other forums on GW who take good care of the novice gardeners (and those like us who never graduate from being novice).

marknmt (or anyone else), can you please provide references (preferably link) to the write-ups for pruning that have been mentioned in the first post of marknmt that helped him very much.

Maybe you mean this one:

Pruning Guide

Thanks tcstoehr.
Alan is right in his article saying "Pruning has to be the most confusing part of caring for fruit trees."
The only time I think I know what I am doing is when I am pruning (trimming) globe cedar or pyramidal cedar. On fruit trees every branch looks too good to be removed and probably there lies the problem in the mindset.
This write-up may help me in letting me remove some more branches and feeling good about it.

Yes, that's the one H-man wrote that I was referring to, and the other one, which he provided also, is linked below.

Reading them together (along with some outside study of my trees) made the difference for me. I could almost see a little light bulb glowing above me!

Until now I've followed a kind of mechanistic approach to heading back here, thinning there, opening up the tree and trying to encourage/discourage branches as seemed appropriate. OK as far as it goes, but what the two guides together taught me was to think in terms of "crops" of one, two, and three year wood. In a sense I'm not growing apples or pears; I'm growing a crop of apple pencils, which are the two next year's fruit-bearing wood, and as the years go way I'll have to remove the old wood to make room for the new.

Alan's "Pruning by Numbers" helped me on questions I had about carbohydrate transport and storage too, but it'll take me longer to apply those intelligently.

Which brings me to an apology. I'm going on as if Harvestman is the only person who has taught me anything here, and that's just not the case. In fact, it's the conversations between the several very well-informed, professional, committed experts that are my most important sources.

But if I start listing people I'm going to overlook somebody who helped me last month or last year but who isn't speaking to my obsession of the moment. I don't want to do that. I also don't want to inadvertently "rank" everybody.

So I want to just say "Thanks" as I go, "Thanks" in particular when I clear a particular hurdle, and "Thanks" to everybody here who helps make this such a friendly and collegial board.

Thanks.

:-)M

Here is a link that might be useful: Good Fruit Grower 1-2-3 guide