Pruning Peaches to the Open Center System
I'm such a novice
pruner, having only dabbled in it for the last three years and only
really seen the results of my pruning this year. I figure in
about a decade, I'll feel like I've got my feet under me. In the
meantime, I cut and hope.
I'm pruning all of my fruit trees to one of two forms --- the central
leader system (apples, pears, cherry) or the open center system
(peaches, nectarines.) Since I pruned most of my apple trees in
February, I'm focusing on the open center system here, which is a lot
more difficult for the novice, in my opinion. The purpose is to
keep the tree short and spreading so that the maximum amount of
sunlight reaches the leaves and fruit (and the fruit is easy to
pick.) Unfortunately, this pruning technique goes directly
counter to a tree's natural growth system --- straight up. Read more....
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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