My Pruning Fruit Trees Experience

If you want to extend the life of your tree and encourage it to grow better fruit, you have to prune it. Pruning fruit trees is the thing to do, because that allows sunlight to reach all areas of the tree. I was determined not to call someone to do this for me, so I armed myself with a ladder and my best sewing scissors. I succeeded in opening the ladder and pinching my thumb in about 30 minutes. Then I climbed up this thing and had an idea of what Jack felt like when he climbed the beanstalk.

When I reached the first limb, I realized I knew nothing about pruning fruit trees but I figured it couldn’t be that hard. I realized my scissors weren’t going to do the job after I tried cutting a smaller limb from the tree. That’s when I pulled out my husband’s chain saw.

It had to be more effective than scissors, after all. Except I didn’t anticipate how loud it would be! It startled me. I flung it away on the ground and fell backwards off the ladder. Lucky for me that the grass is soft. I went back up the ladder with the chain saw (not before cursing the noisy thing) and started again. I was ready this time.

Once again, I tried cutting that smaller limb. Did you know that chain saws are very sharp? I succeeded in taking out six limbs and cut halfway into another one, entirely by accident. About 1/4th of my tree was lying on the ground now. My precious tree! If I wasn’t ticked off before, I sure was now. Not to mention the fact that when those limbs fell, one of them hit me right in the forehead and left a big scratch. I would not give up.

How hard can pruning fruit trees possibly be? Getting the hedge shears, I climbed up in the tree this time. As I was going up, I kicked over the ladder by accident.

Boiling mad, I waited in that bleeping fruit tree until my husband found me in the tree, bleeding from the head, with dirt stuck to my butt. I walked back to the house as my husband laughed, but as I did I gave that tree a withering look and muttering, “Until next year!”

Visit Fruit Tree Nursery and get the tips you need to make pruning Fruit Trees not only easy, but also fun. Plus we got some other great fruit tree advice as well.

- Jessica A