Harvestman, believe it or not I was out doing this kind of pruning last night and was planning on posting something about it here. I was only doing a follow-up pass after doing most of the pruning at dormant time, to remove more of the non-bearing or barely-bearing wood on some trees. So that is another variation on the delayed dormant pruning theme. Doing a follow-on pass now is also good for starting pruners because they tend to not take enough wood out so it gives another chance to prune.

I was going to post something because I just started doing this a year or two ago because I wanted to help focus the tree on its bearing wood and it seemed like an obvious thing to do. I bet we are not the first people to do this, but I don't think I read about it anywhere. In my backyard orchard I particularly need to get things opened up due to the relative lack of sun hours, and doing multiple passes helps with that, making it easier to make those hard pruning decisions.

Scott

No, I'm sure people have often observed all this in the past, but it's surprising that it is not widely spoken about given how much it can affect what you remove and, because your are observing the trees closely while removing it, how educational it is.

I've benefited from this experience for a long time but never really made a note of it and shared my thoughts on the subject. The only reason I ever became aware of it is that I have a tendency to overbook work. So many trees- so little time!

I do almost no winter pruning in my greenhouse. Instead the first pruning on stone fruit comes between shuck split and normal thinning time. So that first pruning is often similar to winter pruning but I use it more to reduce the crop load. It's my first step in thinning. I'd say it reduces my thinning work about 10-50%. Plus like stated above adjustments can be made depending on crop load and position of fruit.

"Early spring has me scrambling, and even though I've been diligently pruning every work day since Jan 2, some of my orchards are not yet pruned although early flowering apples are at about half inch green or farther."

Hman,

I don't know how you get all the thinning done. It takes me longer to thin than prune, and the window is shorter. How do you squeeze that in?

Scott, if you read this post, I responded to the email you sent (on Zard apricot) but haven't heard back from you. I'm wondering if your email spam filter blocked me.

I don't thin for annual production, just for fruit quality so the window is not so narrow. Even if I'm a little late it will help the sugar a lot, which is the main thing in noncommercial production.

I thin stone fruit but not always apples and usually not the very big trees I manage except when annual production is important or the owner really is looking for highest quality, or I'm afraid the wood may break from excessive weight.

At any rate, I hire extra help at thinning time and don't do it myself. I prune while the help thins fruit. I like to wait until a week after final insecticide ap. of my 2.

With small problem trees I thin flowers aggressively.

long time no talk harvestman...

thanks for a great and timely post! I did another walk through our fifty mixed trees this morning, snipping small sprouts etc and am amazed at variances of growth and habit.