Even though it’s considered off-season for pruning trees, summer fruit tree pruning is best for detecting what may need correcting—including breaks, pests, or disease. Summer pruning should be kept light, you want to save any heavy pruning for when the tree is dormant. Read on to find out why.

Summer Fruit Tree Pruning Tips

It’s always the season for pruning any dead or damaged tree branches. In the summer, your fruit trees may be loaded down by the weight of the fruit. If a branch breaks, prune back the ragged edges, and make a smooth cut that doesn’t leave a stump.

New branches of a tree can be too soft or weak to hold the weight of fruit. Prune these branches to help encourage thicker, stronger branches to grow, and to manage the tree’s overall size as well.

Pruning trees correctly enhances their exposure to light. This is especially helpful for developing young fruit trees, and improving the fruit size and quality in more mature trees. Proper light and air circulation also reduces the risk of fungal disease for all trees.

The following fruit trees are the most commonly considered for summer pruning:

• Peach trees
• Nectarine trees
• Japanese plum trees

Best Time for Summer Fruit Tree Pruning

July and early August are the best times to prune your fruit trees. It’s still the active growing season, and you want to get it done before things slow down in fall.

Since pruning encourages growth, you don’t want to wait too late into the season so that it grows too much into the winter months. You do want to wait for a drier weather forecast. Pruning right before rain can lead to disease.

With these tips in mind, and sharp pruners in hand, go ahead and prune your trees in summer and enjoy the fruits of your labor.