If you have fruit trees, they need to be pruned yearly.  Even citrus should be shaped up occasionally to maintain fruit quality and prevent disease. 

This weekend my husband and I are going to my in-laws to prune their fruit tree orchard.  They have a small orchard at their ranch, about a dozen trees.  Most years the trees don’t get too much attention, but now that we live in the area we are going to help them get the orchard back in shape.

Since the trees we will be working on have not been pruned in many years we will be making major cuts to correct the shape.  This will mean taking off entire limbs of some trees.  This type of heavy pruning will mean a loss of fruit this coming year, and probably the next, but in the long run the trees will be healthier.  Trees without major structural problems should be shaped up: centers opened to allow light to reach all parts of the tree, topped if they are getting too tall and removal of crossed limbs and water-sprouts.  When pruning be careful not to remove too much of the one and two-year-old growth – many trees produce flowers and fruit on the new wood. 

After pruning, my husband will spray the trees with copper to treat and prevent disease.  There are a lot of resources available regarding copper sprays, but you can get some basics here from eHow.