How to prune peach trees in summer? Proper pruning helps improve peach quality

    Summer pruning can assist in shaping peach trees, inhibit excessive growth of new shoots, reduce nutrient consumption, improve ventilation and light penetration, promote flower bud differentiation, enhance peach quality and increase yield. Summer pruning throughout the year is generally done 3-5 times, mainly concentrated in May-August.

Peach tree

    1. Bud removal:After peach trees sprout, remove crowded buds, buds on the upper side of branches, and buds in inappropriate positions. When new shoots grow to 5-6 cm, remove useless tender shoots. Keep one twin shoot with a wide angle and remove the one with a narrow angle. Also promptly remove sprouts within 15 cm of the base of branches on the scaffold limbs of peach trees and clustered new shoots at pruning and saw cuts.

    2. Pinching:Peach trees have many secondary shoots, and pinching will cause even more secondary shoots and a dense canopy, so in peach cultivation, except for pinching the extended shoots of main and lateral branches when shaping young trees, pinching of new shoots is not recommended in summer pruning of peach trees.

    3. Twisting shoots:When upright vigorous shoots of peach trees reach 25-30 cm and are semi-lignified, grasp the base of the new shoot at 5-10 cm with your hand and twist 180 degrees to make it grow obliquely or droop. Twisting shoots is generally done in May-June. If a vigorous shoot emerges again at the twisted point, it can be twisted again. Except for selected extended shoots and their secondary shoots which are not twisted, competing shoots of other extended shoots, shoots on the upper side of scaffold limbs, water sprouts of inner canopy branches, and vigorous shoots growing near large wounds can all be twisted. Twisting shoots can control excessive growth of peach branches, moderate tree vigor, and transform shoots into substantial fruiting branches, having the dual function of fruiting and renewal.

Peach tree pruning

    4. Thinning branches:When new shoots of peach trees reach 30 cm, the quality and nature of peach branches can be judged according to tree vigor, thickness, position, etc., selecting and keeping strong branches in suitable positions, and thinning out competing branches, water sprouts, thin and weak branches, densely growing branches, upright branches and drooping branches. After fruit harvest, thin out some crowded perennial branches, current-year branches, and some vigorous branches on the upper side or periphery. Shoot pruning: After petal fall, for fruit branches that have set fruit, leave one tender shoot above the young fruit and cut short; for medium and long fruit branches that have flowered but not set fruit, cut back leaving 2-4 buds to encourage fruiting branches to grow that year. Before June, for water sprouts sprouting on main and lateral scaffold limbs and inside the canopy, if there is space, leave 1-2 nodes at the base for ultra-short cutting to cultivate small and medium-sized fruiting branch groups; if there is no space, remove them from the base.

    5. Bending shoots:Also called stripping shoots, for 60 cm long lateral new shoots with vigorous growth characteristics, change their growth direction by bending shoots, that is, grip the new shoot tightly with four fingers, press down with the thumb on top, and push up with the four fingers below, gradually moving from the base of the new shoot toward the tip, injuring the xylem, hearing a sound but not breaking the branch. Bending shoots can moderate branch vigor, facilitate nutrient accumulation and flower formation and fruiting, generally done in July-August.

    6. Pulling branches and propping branches:Pulling branches is a key measure to moderate tree vigor, shape young trees, promote early fruiting and prevent bareness of the lower part of peach tree trunks and branches. For main and lateral branches with small opening angles and unsuitable extension directions or relatively upright large fruiting branch groups, methods such as propping, pulling, wedging and weighting can be used to open the angle or adjust the direction. The pulling angle is generally around 80°, and they should not be pulled to a horizontal or drooping state; for main and lateral branches of peach trees with excessively large opening angles, branches with forks can be used to prop them up to reduce the angle, mostly done in August.