Summer Prune
1 August 2005

Every good gardener is aware that winter and spring pruning is essential. Then the secateurs are put away for another year with no thought of summer use.

This is the time to prune with next year’s fruit and flowers in mind.

There is still time to prune plum, cherry and greengage fruit trees that must be pruned in summer. At this time the spores of killer diseases such as bacterial canker and silver leaf that enter through pruning cuts are dormant.

Trained fruit trees of apples, pears and peaches are pruned in summer to reduce the long, young side shoots and keep the tree in shape. Shorten the stems back to 4-5 leaves making the sloping cut immediately above a bud. The portion remaining is where the spurs that carry the blossom and fruit will form. The leader is trained and allowed to grow without being shortened.

Summer fruiting raspberries have finished cropping. All the stems that carried fruit are cut down to ground level. Try not to leave any stumps as they encourage disease.

The new growths are tied into the supporting wires to replace those removed. Surplus shoots are thinned out and burnt.

Strawberry plants can be tidied up. Remove the older leaves and any runners not required as new plants.

Bush fruit such as blackcurrants can be pruned. Remove the older branches that have black rather than brown bark. Remove the branch as close to the ground as possible to encourage strong, new growths from the base of the plant. Thin out the centre of the plant to allow air movement and for ease of harvesting next year.

Wisteria is summer pruned in the same way as trained apple trees. The long side shoots of this year’s growth are shortened to within 5-6 leaves of the older wood. They are again cut back to 2-3 leaves in winter. This stump of wood produces the flower buds that result in the spectacular trailing racemes of blue, purple or white, early summer flowers.

Trained laburnum should be pruned now. Remove the older or diseased branches tying in replacement shoots to fill any gaps. Shorten new side shoots to 2-3 leaves to form spurs that will carry flowers.

Remove surplus or badly placed branches.

The green fruit will be forming on pyracantha. Where they are trained on walls or timber trellis then the side shoots can be cut back to within 3-4 leaves of the clusters of fruit. This will allow the yellow, red or orange berries to be seen and keep the plant from growing away from the support.

The secateurs will also be needed to remove suckers from trees, shrubs and grafted rose bushes. Reversion where a single branch of a variegated plant reverts to all green leaves is easily spotted in summer. The whole branch should be pruned out before the stronger green shoot takes over the plant.

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