Winter Fruit Tree Pruning

Pruning deciduous fruit trees in winter is essential for their continued health, growth and fruit production. It creates the structure for the coming year’s abundance.

This tree grows because of a combination of sunlight, hormones, minerals, science and magic. It is dormant now, but not asleep, it’s actually growing roots under ground. It has dropped it’s leaves, exposing it’s erratic growth, some broken branches, some old pruning wounds, some lessons learned and countless possibilities.

I will train this bare tree, gently pushing branches aside or closer together, to create a shape more capable of efficiently accepting sunlight. This shaping forms our purpose. Assessing bare limbs, sharply cutting out what we don’t need. In winter, we are all raw, yet we can begin to imagine our potential and to brace ourselves for swelling buds. We can go slowly and steadily allow ourselves to wake up and imagine the light we'll be able to receive, when we've grown the structure to receive it.

The winter, the dormant part of a tree’s life cycle, is necessary to grow roots and plan the energy expenditure for production of wood, leaves, blossoms and fruit. Reducing excess shoots, erratic growth patterns, cutting out dead, dying or diseased wood give the tree a healthier structure to form buds that hold the cells that create leaves, blossoms and after pollination… abundant fruit!