Generally speaking, pruning encourages the growth of plants. It stimulates flower production in flowering shrubs and the fructification of fruit trees

Before starting to prune your trees, it is worth learning to recognise the different types of branches that make up a tree. Thus we talk of:

• main and side branches, which form the crown of the tree
• vertical and competing branches, which are a natural occurrence and are subject to special treatment when pruning.

One of the main rules of pruning is to open up the centre of the shrub to let the light and air in. You must cut above a union that is facing the outside of the plant and remove all the weak and criss-crossing branches.

Specialists identify 3 types of pruning:

Formative pruning

The point of this is to develop the crown, and it is done between the second and fifth year after planting. It is done from the end of the autumn to the beginning of the winter so that scarring is complete by the time the sap rises in spring.

This type of pruning is done in two stages:

• a shortening of the main branch to the height of the side branches (slightly above so that it keeps its dominant position).
• an annual shortening of the dominant side branches and competing branches arriving directly on the main branch by a quarter of their length.

Thinning pruning

This type of pruning is indispensable to achieve a well structured crown, facilitating the passage of air and light.
To encourage growth and fructification, the branches growing towards the inside of the crown must be pruned, then the vertical, competing and side branches thinned out as well as any that are too weak or too tightly packed.

Renewal pruning

This is done when the growth of the tree and the quantity of fruit it bears have diminished.
This type of pruning consists of cutting back the side branches to the lower side branch and shortening the central branch so that the tree forms different triangles whose central branch retains the dominant position.