When do you prune orange trees

Trimming An Orange Tree - How And When To Prune Orange Trees

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Orange Trees

By: Amy Grant

Image by southpict

Citrus are evergreen fruit bearers that do not require as much pruning as their deciduous brethren. If left unpruned, however, growth can get vigorous and out of hand, so pruning orange trees will rein in their appearance. How do you go about trimming an orange tree and when is the best time to prune orange trees? Read on to learn more.

Orange Tree Pruning

Why should you prune citrus such as orange trees? Pruning orange trees can improve aeration and increase light through the canopy, thus improving fruit quality and yield. Pruning out water sprouts can improve productivity in some cases as well. Ease in harvesting of oranges and a reduction in potential injury due to falls from ladders are also the results of trimming back an orange tree to reduce its overall height.

Skirt pruning reduces the risk of soil borne pathogens affecting the fruit as well as facilitating weeding and mulch layering. Citrus can be trained as a sheared hedge or espalier through careful pruning. That said, orange tree pruning is not usually necessary except to remove any damaged or diseased limbs. There is no need to prune to thin out fruit unless there is just an overabundance.

Pruning potted oranges is usually not necessary either, as the size of their container usually keeps their growth in check. Again, you want to remove any damaged or diseased branches, lightly snip off suckers that arise below the graft or bud union and keep an open canopy.

When to Prune Orange Trees

If you do decide to prune this citrus tree, plan to do so just prior to bloom time or just after fruit set. For instance, in warmer regions, prune in the spring between February and April; in cooler areas, delay the pruning until late February or March.

Small trimmings, such as removing sprouts, can occur at any time except late in the growing season because it stimulates new growth, which can be damaged by frost. Once you have pruned, protect the area with a 50:50 white interior latex paint and water mixture.

Be sure to sterilize pruning implements in case they have previously come in contact with a contaminant or disease. Now that you know when to prune, the question is HOW to prune an orange tree.

How to Prune and Orange Tree

Sprouts are easy to remove by hand when they are small. If they are too big to easily snap off, use hand pruners. Keep up on removing the sprouts; they should never get so large that you need loppers or a saw to remove them. If you do have to remove a sprout with loppers, remove it at its base, retaining the branch collar. The collar is the swollen area of trunk that surrounds the base of a branch and protects the tree from decay.

Always use sharp, sterilized shears. If you lack the gumption to keep up on sprout removal, the trunk can be wrapped with white cardboard to inhibit their growth. Keep the lower 10 to 12 inches (25-30 cm.) of the tree free from sprouts.

To remove branches, you will need hand pruners or even a saw. Prune the branch flush with the collar, not the trunk. This gives the tree the best chance to heal completely and minimize sprout growth.

If the branch is larger than 1 ½ inches (4 cm.) across, use a three-part cut.

First, select an area 6 to 12 inches (15-31 cm.) out from the collar for your first cut. Saw through one-third of the branch starting on the underside. Known as the undercut, this keeps the bark from tearing.
Make your second cut about 3 inches (8 cm.) further out from the undercut. Cut all the way through the branch this time until the limb falls away.
Lastly, cut the resulting stub back to the branch collar. If the cut is smooth, the tree will heal itself and no pruning paint or sealant is needed.

When you are done with your three-part cut, inspect the wood to be sure it is healthy. It should be whitish yellow, like a manila folder. If you see any dark wood, this is an indication that disease still exists and you may need to remove more of the tree, treat it if possible or dispense with it if it is severely affected.

This article was last updated on 04/19/21

How & When to Prune an Orange Tree – Tree Removal

Orange trees are beautiful as decorative plants and excellent for their fruit. They can be grown easily in warm climates or in large pots in cooler climates with access to a greenhouse for the winter. Keeping them pruned serves two purposes: It keeps the trees at a manageable size and ensures maximum fruit production.

When to Prune

The best time to prune an orange tree is when it has finished bearing fruit. Typically, this is in the late summer or early autumn. In warm climates where the tree can produce two cycles of fruit in a year, the time is a little more flexible.

Why Prune?

Pruning offers a number of benefits to the tree. The tree is smaller after pruning, making it easier to harvest and move, if necessary. Lighter branches reduce damage caused by heavy fruit or high winds. Pruning encourages growth, which in turn encourages fruit production. Fewer branches mean more energy can be devoted to each branch, producing better fruit. Having fewer, lighter branches reduces the need to prop and support heavy branches before harvest.

Pruning Patterns

The typical pattern for pruning an orange tree is to thin out the high, upper branches. This new growth is where the majority of blossoms and fruit appear each year. Leaving too much of it in will result in smaller fruit that ripens slowly, making a sub-par harvest.

Young trees need less pruning than older, mature trees; young trees need more energy to establish while mature trees can dedicate more energy to fruit. For old, mature trees with relatively little past pruning, gardeners can remove whole limbs from the top and center of the tree, reducing the size and allowing more sunlight to reach the inner areas of the tree. This makes the tree shape resemble a vase or V.

How to Prune Safely

Pruning can be dangerous to a tree. It opens a wound in the bark, which allows exterior elements to enter. Rot and tree infections are common with poorly pruned trees, but such problems can occur even in healthy trees. For pruning that will cause the least amount of damage, gardeners can follow these tips:

Do not prune parallel to the main branch in a flush cut. This opens a larger wound than is necessary. Excess damage on this scale can kill a tree.
Do not prune too far away from where a smaller branch joins the larger. This leaves a stub that can gather moisture and induce rot.
Do not prune from the top down or the bottom up. The weight of the branch can crack healthy wood or strip bark from the remaining branch, opening a large wound and causing infection that can easily kill a tree.

The proper way to prune a branch is to make a small cut one third to one half of the way through the branch, about 1 to 2 inches from where the branch joins the trunk, from the bottom up. This prevents bark stripping if the branch falls. Then, half an inch or so further out from that cut, finish the cut from the top down. This prevents cracking the wood.

About Wound Dressings

Wound dressings are chemicals designed to be applied to the stub of a branch after it has been cut. The idea is that these chemicals prevent fungal infections and rot in the open wound. Some gardeners prefer to use them, but wound dressings are not necessary for properly pruned branch stubs. There is little evidence to suggest that wound dressing chemicals work better than the natural chemicals in the tree itself. Pruning a branch properly reduces the risk of rot or infection, and a healthy tree can handle the rest.

Photo courtesy of Food Source Information

How to prune an orange tree | Gardening

One of the most important ways to care for an orange tree is pruning. Not only does this help control your growth, but it also keeps you healthy and benefits from increased production, meaning you'll have more, better quality oranges. But, How do you prune an orange tree?

If you have an orange tree and don't know how and when to prune it, we want to tell you everything you need to know about this care so you can provide it the best you can.

index

1 When the orange tree
- 1.1 was cut off as often
2 Types of pruning
3 How to trim the orange tree
- 3.1 Formation of young orangea
- 3.4 Rejuvenation pruning

When an orange tree was pruned

Usually when we think about pruning an orange tree or a citrus tree in general, we always think that it should be done in late winter or early spring . But the truth is that in the case of the orange tree it would be depends on the age of the tree because pruning a young tree is different from pruning an old one.

To give you an idea, the young orange tree can be pruned at any time of the year . Not recommended in winter because the cold can affect the health of the tree, but with good care there will be no problem (sealing cuts, sheltering from frost, etc.).

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In the case of the orange trees are already grown, it is better if they are always pruned when the winter is over And spring is coming because, if you don't know, they are more delicate and low temperatures can affect them.

How often could

Another issue that can arise when pruning an orange tree is the frequency of pruning. Is it pruned several times a year? Every x years?

It is normal that branches are cut once a year . Thus, you not only treat the tree by removing intersecting branches, dry, damaged or diseased, but also saturate it with oxygen. However, it is said that with annual pruning, the branches remain thin and not thick. In order for it to “fatten”, it was necessary to leave it for several years without cutting anything.

Trims

You should be aware that pruning is not unique, there are several types that you should be aware of in order to be able to apply according to your desires. And sometimes you can prune in the middle of summer or sometimes when it's unusual, but it's allowed if it's minimal.

So you will find:

Maintenance or pruning training. This is the simplest way and the tree suffers the least as only a few branches are cut. It is used to prevent a tree from losing shape or cutting off a branch that has been damaged or is injurious to its health.
Fruit cutting. Principal branches are selected, usually 3-4, to achieve greater fruiting. And the point is that the suckers are cut and pruned a little so that the tree can focus on that part.
Cutting products . It also helps to improve the quality and quantity of the fruit, as well as getting more light and more oxygen between the branches.
Rejuvenation cut . This only happens with trees that are already many years old, between 20 and 40 years old, and there can be two cases: it is a sharp pruning, that is, the removal of all foliage and leaving only the base and main branches; and progressive pruning, which means pruning from crown to base in 3 years.

In general, each type of orange tree has its own pruning:

Up to three years: this is called practice pruning.
Third and fourth year: fruit-bearing pruning.
From the fifth year: production pruning.
From 20-40 years old: anti-aging pruning.

How to prune an orange tree step by step

Next, we will provide you with a guide so that you know how to prune an orange tree step by step. As you have seen in all of the above, depending on how old this tree is, you will have to prune it one way or another. So let's talk about everyone.

Form pruning of young orange trees

This pruning can be done not only on young trees, but also on dwarf orange trees.

To do this, you need to do the following: select 3 branches if they are separated at an angle of 120 degrees, and which of them will be the tree itself, as if it were its skeleton. Through these three it will branch, but it is not recommended to have more branches.

It is usually said that you should put a guide at a distance of one meter from the ground and cut off any remaining branches below. Thus, you will make sure that the base of the torso is present.

Pruning of fruiting

When the tree is 3 years old and the frame is already made, it is necessary to establish which will be secondary industries . And as we have told you before, it will be possible to branch from these three main branches, but now you have to select the secondary branches by removing suckers and pruning those that are overgrown, diseased, crossed, etc.

Pruning products

This occurs from the fifth year, when the tree takes root well and has certain branches, both major and minor.

In this case, the goal is not so much to find "productive" branches, but to find disinfect the tree from the inside so that it can be oxygenated, so that there are no branches that could get stuck, and so that sunlight hit the whole tree. So the goal is to open it up a bit.

Rejuvenation pruning

It is produced from the oldest orange trees, which are between 20 and 40 years old, so their production has declined. For this you need cut off branches that no longer bear fruit, those that look weak, cross each other and are not needed.

The goal is to keep the glass as clean as possible, almost to the point where only the skeleton remains. To avoid harsh pruning, it can be done after a few years to gradually disinfect and allow the tree to adapt to these changes.

Do you have more questions about how to prune an orange tree? Then contact us.

How to prune an orange tree | Gardening

If you have an orange tree and don't know how and when to prune it, we want to tell you everything you need to know about this care so you can provide it the best you can.

index

1 When the orange tree
- 1.1 was cut off as often
2 Types of pruning
3 How to trim the orange tree
- 3.1 Formation of young orangea
- 3.4 Rejuvenation pruning