You definitely need to get in there and prune. It's good for the tree in the long run at the expense of a year of fruit. Also try thinning. Keeping the space between each fruit on a branch the width of your spread hand is a good rule of thumb. The remaining fruit will grow larger and sweeter and the tree will tend to bear fruit every year where some bear bi-annually.

Totally agree with what fireballsocal said. The last thing you want to do is prop up limbs. They will become weak and be dependent on support instead of supporting themselves. Without seeing some pictures, it is hard to advise on how to prune but a general rule of thumb is you can take no more that 1/3 of the tree out at a time. Get the overlapping branches and branches growing inward out first. Some research on youtube would probably help you as well. Good luck but get to pruning as soon as you can.

It depends on type of fruit, it may be too late in the season for some varieties depending on your climate. For example you don't want to prune most varieties of pears if you have a wet spring season due to risk of fire blight infection.

Thank you! These are some photos of the lemon tree that was relevant to this question

As you can see at one point it got so bad that we were trying to prop it up up temporarily from sagging with a ladder

wow, I wish I had your lemon tree problem. lol!

I was just reading up on fruit tree pruning and it said that if you're shortening a branch you should take off up to 1/3 if it's strong-growing, and up to 2/3 if it's weak/thin/spindly.

I would definetly do some pruning/ thinning on the lemon tree. In February I trimmed my navel orange and it had branches that reached almost to the ground. (Years of neglect by previous owner) It responded by filling out, blossoming and now I have lots of new oranges. The navel orange is pretty good about self thinning oranges it can’t support but your lemon might need some help.

We had an out of control meyer lemon tree and I went "Edward Scissorhands" on that thing, with no pruning knowledge at the time ... and it came back better and stronger. Looking back, I probably took about a 3rd off, maybe a little more. I don't think it had fruit on it when I chopped it though ... folks on the citrus board may have an opinion on what you should do.

Be careful pruning citrus, many of the rules for deciduous fruit do not apply to Citrus. My rule of thumb on citrus is only prune wildly growing limbs or ones that droop to the ground too much. Excess pruning of citrus can cause an increase on vegetative growth and large decrease in fruit production. There is also some evidence that excess pruning can cause citrus to become alternate bearing (fruits every other year).

You should visit a real orchard and observe the pruning! Proper pruning results in stronger trees and improved production. Perhaps your local extension service conducts citrus tree pruning classes on an annual basis. I used to teach fruit tree pruning in several counties around the south.

Happycamper, not only is the pruning of fruit trees NOT a "waste" but it is an essential task of fruit tree maintenance.