The primary reason trees are summer pruned is to enhance light penetration and distribution throughout the canopy.

These shoots developing from non-dormant buds are called “sylleptic shoots.”įruit developing in the shade during the final swell will be small and soft, with poor red color and soluble solids.

Some buds on vigorous shoots do not become dormant and develop into leafy shoots shortly after they are formed. These axillary buds usually remain dormant until they are exposed to a chilling requirement and then may remain dormant or develop into leafy shoots. As shoots elongate, a vegetative bud forms at the base of each leaf. If a branch is too horizontal, then dormant buds in the bark will develop into strong vertical vegetative shoots that produce sylleptic shoots that produce few flower buds but shade the tree interior. If a branch is too upright, then no new shoots will develop along the lower section of the branch, even when light levels are adequate. Shoots exposed to high light levels early in the season will initiate maximum numbers of flower buds.īranch orientation influences the number and quality of new shoots arising from those branches. Shoots developing in early-season moderate shade will initiate few flower buds. However, if moderately high light levels are maintained in the tree interior, it is possible to maintain fruiting wood for the life of the tree. Once these fruiting shoots in the tree interior are lost, it is very difficult to regenerate new fruitful shoots.

As trees grow taller, the lower canopy becomes shaded and new shoots developing in the extreme shade will die. Peach trees exhibit strong apical dominance and tend to produce new shoots on the ends of branches and in the tops of the trees.

I will try to review some of this information to explain how summer pruning can be used to maintain fruiting wood in the lower canopy and to enhance peach fruit quality. Simultaneously, others elucidated the importance of light and carbohydrate partitioning during fruit development that helps explain the tree’s response to summer pruning. During the 1980s and 90s, several researchers evaluated summer pruning in apple and peach. When peach trees are summer pruned properly, one can expect economic benefits, but economic losses result from summer pruning incorrectly. Tree response can vary when these aspects of pruning are varied.

Pruning peach trees download