Summer pruning of cordon apples and pears | The 3 simple rules of summer pruning

In this video I tackle the summer pruning of the apple and pear cordons. Unlike winter pruning, where more judgement is needed, summer pruning can be completed with ease by following three simple rules. I explain the rules and show how they can be applied along with a few other tips.
For winter pruning: • Winter pruning of cord...

[@adamnott9477]

Possibly the best I've seen on pruning in years. Starting to make sense of a lot more thanks to this.

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

That's great. thanks :) There is also a winter pruning video if you are interested.

[@mucklarker]

@@adamnott9477 totally agree 👍

[@Moonlight76876]

Finely I found video that is up close which makes it understandable to someone that's needs to understand summer pruning. Thanks a million, you are the best instructor 🌱

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thanks very much :)

[@mucklarker]

Brilliant video, has helped me understand the pruning process for my cordons much better. Thank you!

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

That's great, thanks :) There is also a video on winter pruning if it helps...

[@mucklarker]

@@jonnyskitchengarden rest assured I will be watching the winter pruning video 👍 I don’t suppose you’ve done a video on gooseberry cordons Jonny?

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Unfortunately, nothing on gooseberry cordons, sorry :( We did grow some as double cordons in our previous fruit cage as it was a nice way to get multiple varieties in a small space, but that was before I started making videos.

[@susanblunt4919]

I have just acquired an allotment in Cumbria with two neglected espaliered apple trees - this video was brilliant and hopefully I'll recognise what to do when next I go to the allotment. Things rarely look the same in the flesh as they do on screen!!

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

That is very true! If they have been neglected for some time, you may find you need to do some corrective/structural work in the winter pruning - there is a video on that here too :)

[@vulk86]

Best video on espalier pruning!

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thank you! 😀

[@paulkirk6989]

Best explained and demonstrated video on cordon pruning I've found . Thank you.

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thank you 🙂

[@alanpayne3834]

Brilliant video, thanks for plain understandable do's and don'ts, the when to's and the when not to's. My four year old espalier Russet will now not only look good it will produce more fruit. Thanks again. Alan Payne . West Sussex

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thanks - I'm glad you found it helpful :) If you haven't seen it already, I also have one on winter pruning - to start with, most of the work is in the summer so I don't know how much winter pruning you might need yet, but I go through the process here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5i6qHtmZtakpas.

[@iangrimaldi1583]

Thanks Johnny I’ve just found out I’ve been pruning very badly love your videos and thanks for this 👍🏻

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thanks! Glad it helped :)

[@vicroberts4179]

Thanks. Very good instructive video. By far the best I've seen on this subject. Regards Vic

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thank you :)

[@Nepentanova]

Many thanks for this video. I have had pear cordons growing since last year and have been very confused as to how to prune. This is hands down the best video I have seen. Thank you for your patience and not rushing the explanations and examples.

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thank you very much 😊 I also have a video on winter pruning, though for the first few years I expect most of the work will be done in the summer: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5i6qHtmZtakpas

[@howardg4957]

Thank you for clarifying a complex subject!,

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Glad you found it helpful :)

[@MrRussbros]

Jonny. that was very helpful and I think that I've got a much clearer idea of what to do and when . regards John

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

That's great :)

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

Thank you kindly for the detailed explanations. So much of that information is woefully incomplete or just ignored in most articles and videos. Now I'm off to watch your winter pruning video, and I'm sure others as well. I really appreciate your work, since I'm just getting started putting fruit trees in. Now I feel much more confident that I won't ruin them or delay their progress by incorrect techniques on my part.

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thank you! I'm so pleased you found it helpful :)

[@kevinhowell3527]

First year with new espalier apples in theScottish Borders. Thanks Jonny for the very informative advice and I can start pruning later this month with more confidence.

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

That's great 👍😊 New trees shouldn't need much work in the winter for a couple of years, but when they do, I also have a video on winter pruning: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5i6qHtmZtakpas

[@dmaifred]

Best explanation and easy to follow I've found. Cheers from Western Australia. I've naively done to much of this in the winter. I'm about to put on my nets to keep out the 28s parrots and silvereye birds (The silvereyes eat lots of pesky bugs so they are forgiven) so I thought it a good time to update my info and thankfully adding six months this is the perfect time. Cheers.

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Glad you found it useful... also glad we don't have to keep parrots away! :)

[@carolinesykes3636]

Great video. Super useful and direct and to the point!

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thanks :)

[@kamabrab4567]

Very systematic approach, I usually improvise cutting my trees but I’ll definitely try you method now. I really appreciate your advices. Big thank you!

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Glad you found it helpful :) I think it can be useful sometimes to have a system to follow to start with. After some practice one gets a feel for where to cut and then a more intuitive approach may follow.

[@myrustygarden]

Good timing I bought a new dwarf apple this spring and want to make sure it stays small but I had no idea how to do it. Thank you for sharing glad your channels growing your very easy to follow. Thank you for sharing ✌️🇨🇦🐝 safe

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thank you so much :)

[@rajawy]

Very helpful information (and tutorial) -- thank you, sir!

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Glad you found it useful :)

[@robertturnbull5472]

very helpful .. I enjoy your videos

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thank you :)

[@johndallas5059]

Thank you for your help and advice I shall keep it in mind and I think I should grow my cheery trees in the UFO system thank you very much cheers mate

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

I hope it works out well for you 👍🙂

[@GordonjSmith1]

Well we gave the plum a huge haircut! It will be fine as we really focused on the rather extreme quantity of new growth which were skyrocketing! However I think I will now employ a little more thought on the apples as I am thinking of cascading them down towards the ground (the two I have are relatively young) so rubber wire, and a hand full of bricks are about to be employed in coaxing selected branches down wards. Very informative blog. My thanks.

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Sounds like a festoon - that sort of training is not so common now but it can be most attractive with smaller trees and remarkably productive - it is very effective with plums though I understand it can be done with other fruit too (I’ve only tried it with plums). Be prepared to provide extra support to the branches as it typically results in lots of fruit buds! I’ll be interested to hear how it goes...

[@YPVISA]

Just what I needed to know, great vid, thank you 👍

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

👍😊

[@tennysdp]

Wow! Great information and insight.

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thanks! :)

[@beckybaines2487]

Great vid. Thanks very much 👍

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thank you :)

[@georgestreetorchard]

Excellent video, thank you

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thanks :)

[@rachelandy2207]

Very well explained 🙏

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thank you 😊

[@johndallas5059]

Hi johnny I love your Chanel I live in Australia Queensland you have inspired me to try this growing method I have several fruit trees growing in a fan style and I have 3 cheery trees in a T style so now I'm try asian pears in a 3 tier T style not sure if I can prune theses trees the same as apple and normal pear tree's so I you could let me if I can or do I need to prune these a different method thank you very much for your videos and inspiration keep up the great work and I look very forward to seeing more of your pruning techniques love your work mate cheers 😊😊😊

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

As far as I am aware, you can treat your Asian pears in more or less the same way as a European pear. Their pollen is even compatible, though they typically flower at a different time. They will bear on the tips, many of which will be removed during summer pruning, but also on spurs. As far as I understand, these are productive for some years, but eventually you will need to thin out old wood in favour of the younger and more productive spurs. For best fruit, you may need to thin quite extensively, but this is generally rewarded with fruit that are better size and quality. So, the Asian pear should do well for you. I would perhaps be more concerned with the cherries. Apart from not really appreciating the extensive pruning needed, cherries produce many fruit buds in clusters around or just below the base of one year old wood. Pruning regimes often seek to ensure a good supply of such productive wood. They will also bear on older wood but this becomes less productive after a while and they don't develop the sort of spur systems found on apples and pears. It may be that you can adapt the pruning to suit, and if you find that they produce plenty of fruit then that's fine, but if not, I would consider perhaps changing the pruning method. As you have a tiered structure in place I wonder if it might be possible to retain the lower tier (assuming it's not too high) and grow vertical branches off that - similar to the UFO method I have discussed in other videos. The fruiting wood in this method does need to be cut back from time to time, but you get plenty of those productive clusters. As I said, if its working fine for you at the moment then I would leave it, but just be aware that if, after a few years, the crop is not as extensive as you might want there are things that can be done. Good luck with your new trees! :)

[@gezamadarasz6889]

Very good and clear explanation. However, I am confused about the following year’s summer pruning. This year I cut to the first bud past the basal cluster. No problem. But what happens next year. Does the basal cluster move to the end of the previous year’s growth? If not, I would be cutting next year where I cut this year. If the basal cluster reforms again on next year’s old wood, and continue cutting one bud in front of it, would not, after a while, the branch grow too long? What then?

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Yes, you cut the new growth to one bud each year and after a while the spur systems do become over grown and overcrowded. They are thinned and renewed in winter pruning. I have a video on winter pruning which shows some examples: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5i6qHtmZtakpas

[@Anna-jt3xu]

Very well explained

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thanks 😀

[@radutamas2014]

Excellent!Already subscribed! Just a very small difference of what I did so far in my garden with the young trees but I will choose your lesson next mid july. So far I left more than 3-4 leaves( buds). I have 1 cherry tree, 7 pears tree, 6 apples, 4 apricot tree and 2 peach tree. Waiting for the next videos!How do you fight against the disease?do you use treatmens? What kind? All the best from Romania!

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thanks :) You can shorten any that are too long in winter pruning, but if they aren't so long you can just resume closer pruning next summer when subsequent growth should be cut back to just one bud/leaf 👍 The peach needs a different sort of pruning as it only fruits on one year old wood... As for pests and diseases, I don't use any treatments beyond a little soft soap if the aphid build up gets out of hand in the spring, and when there are ladybirds and larvae around I generally leave them to deal with the aphids.

[@gaywizard2000]

I recently bought an acerage in the Kootenay region of British Columbia which has several very old cherry, apricot and pear trees. This video is a good start. I need advice on renovation of old non producing pears. Although, what would I do with a mountain of pears? Careful what you wish for? Lol

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Sounds great :) Renovation of an old and unproductive tree may take several seasons to complete. It is worth examining the tree for signs of substantial disease or damage in order to decide whether it is worth tackling. If, despite renovations, it would still be a badly damaged and/or diseased tree, it is probably just as well to leave it to its natural decline or remove it. One thing to look for is areas where a substantial amount of bark has been stripped from the main trunk or critical limbs, thus reducing the flow of sap; hopefully any such damage will be limited to areas that can be readily pruned out. If there is damage of this sort, you may be able to effect a repair by using one or more bridge grafts. These shouldn’t be too tricky to accomplish and you can restore a healthy flow of sap this way. Assuming it looks like a viable candidate, the first step is to remove all broken, damaged, and diseased wood, cutting back well into healthy wood where possible - one can often see signs of disease on the cut surface of a branch - you want to cut back until the wood looks clean and healthy. It is sensible to limit the amount of material removed to, perhaps, 1/4 of the total, and I would certainly suggest not more than 1/3 - it is better to spread the work over several years rather than cut excessively in one go. Once any damaged or diseased wood is dealt with, you can review the structure of the tree. I am assuming you are talking about a free-standing tree such as bush, half-standard, or standard, rather than a cordon? If so, you will probably want to start thinning out over crowded areas and places with crossing branches. If it’s a large tree, you can do this by removing larger branches with their laterals and sub-laterals rather than treat each individual side shoot in turn. In general, remove growth towards the centre of the tree to open up the centre for good airflow (traditional tree forms tend to have an open centre - if it’s a different form, please let me know!) and remove any particularly vertical growth - vertical growth tends to be overly vigorous and less productive. Assuming you haven’t removed more than 1/4 to 1/3 already, you can then selectively thin what remains, favouring younger wood over old, cutting back the old wood to a bud or younger shoot that can replace it. Old trees often have low hanging branches where the fruit has weighed them down - if they are drooping excessively, these can be cut back to a better placed replacement. Regrowth is often quite vigorous after extensive pruning, and you may get a lot of vertical whippy growth. This is best dealt with in the summer, in my view, either cutting out entirely, or cutting back to three buds and spur pruning thereafter. They are not the helpful sort of regrowth you will be looking for. In the first season, I would focus on the general health of the tree - damaged and diseased wood, and opening up to improve airflow. In subsequent seasons I would look to gradually remove older wood and encourage renewal. I have a video on winter pruning, which includes the sort of spur pruning you may need to do when renovating older trees: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5i6qHtmZtakpas, and a follow up here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqC9Z4t5h5ynd80. I hope that helps - if you have any questions, I’m happy to try to answer them :)

[@petehill3430]

very helpful so many of these videos don't really address the timing issue, which is the first question in my mind. you do this well! also appreciate you showing the fruit vs growth buds. assuming you are in england- would you expect summer pruning in the upper midwest of the us to be more in mid august? thanks!

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Thanks! I'm not really sure as I have no experience of your climate, but I understand that it is a shorter growing season than here in southern England, so I would expect it to be sooner than here (at least, for well adapted varieties that ripen their wood in good time for the winter cold). It is one of those things that a couple of seasons worth of experience will show. If they are pruned early, no harm will be done, but there may be some secondary growth that needs to be pruned later in the year. In England we can get away with a single summer pruning; a region with a longer growing season may benefit from more, so having to address secondary growth is not a problem. The best indicator is the presence of the terminal buds on a majority of shoots; this shows that little more vegetative growth will be happening and pruning at this point should not result in lots of regrowth. This can vary by fruit (apples tend to be later than pears in my experience) and by variety - early fruiting sorts tend to pack up for winter earlier than those that mature later.

[@wildlifegardenantics]

Thank you for making the video. I wonder if you could advise please......I pruned my two patio pear trees in the first week of August and they're now flowering. I live in the UK and the weather has been all upside down in the north this year so is that the cause? Or did I prune too early or something else? Should I now remove the flowers back to the branches and will more fruit buds develop in time for next year or have I lost next year's fruit as well? Sorry, that's a lot of questions.

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

It is somewhat unusual, but a second flowering late in the season does happen from time to time - and you are right to suspect that unusual weather is the most likely cause (such as a period of unusually cold weather followed by warm conditions, or drought causing stress followed by wet weather). Next year's fruit buds are developing during the summer and generally remain dormant until the spring, but sometimes the conditions fool the tree into flowering early. It happened to some of my apple trees a few years ago. You were a little early with the summer pruning, perhaps, but that is not a problem - all that happens is that you may get a little regrowth, which can be pruned back later. If the buds that would have developed into next year's crop have flowered prematurely then you may well find that you have a reduced harvest next year but I think it doesn't make such a big difference. If you have the time, you could pinch out the flowers just so that further energy is not wasted on them, but otherwise it is nothing to worry about and it's ok to ignore it.

[@wildlifegardenantics]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I'll take the flowers off and delay the summer pruning next year. Even if the crop is reduced they're still very nice trees. Roll on 2025!

[@wendyburston3132]

Hi I'm in Ontario Canada. You have an orange colored disease spot on your leaf. My pear tree has been getting that and I've pulled them off. How do you deal with it and what is it called please? Thank you in advance for your answer. Very informative video👍

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

Apologies - I answered this last week but my reply seems to have disappeared :( Anyway, it is probably a bit of pear rust. I don't have too much of it and just ignore it (as I do many of the pests and diseases unless they become really troublesome). It's a fungal problem so difficult to treat and once established it is challenging (or impossible) to eradicate. Like other rusts, it needs live material as a host and I understand that this one can progress on juniper when the pears are dormant. Removing juniper in the neighbourhood may help (but seems rather drastic), but if its not too bad, I'd just live with it.

[@Deck1ngUK]

May I ask a question, once you’ve developed the fruiting buds, do they always remain?

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

The spur systems are quite long lived on apples and pears. The fruit buds develop during the summer to flower the following spring, so they won't be the same buds - the new buds are forming while the current crop is developing.

[@sonnyhicks2708]

Hi I am new to growing fruit trees. i am worried about my plum tree. Is it natural for the trees leaves are turning yellow. Or do I need to worry about it, is my tree sick. I would send you a picture but not sure how to do that. I would appreciate your input. Thank you so much. Sonny

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

It is rather early for leaves to be yellowing, so I would think there was a problem of some sort there, but there are a variety of potential causes. By all means send some pictures to [e-mail] and I will see if I recognise anything. If you could take photos at various distances, including one of the overall tree and then some closeups of the affected leaves that should be helpful.

[@wasimraja6299]

sir if the distance between plant to plant is 2 feet or 2.5 feet or 3 feet and God forbid roots of one plant get infection like root rot or any other viral or bacterial disease. Then will it spread to all other plants because the root system of all the plants is connected because of lesser distance between them?

[@jonnyskitchengarden]

In practice, I don't think this is a problem. Cordons have been grown this way for hundreds of years and modern commercial cultivation is increasingly based on high density plantings. Whilst root and crown rots can occur, the more common diseases tend to affect the top growth, and even here the gardener need not be unduly concerned; these things happen from time to time and the affected tree can be pulled. I am not familiar with transmission via roots. To reduce the chances of root problems, it is important to prepare the soil properly, especially with respect to drainage; roots do not like sitting in overly wet soil. Selection of the most appropriate rootstock for the soil conditions will also help.

[@wasimraja6299]

@@jonnyskitchengarden thank you sir for this information