by Diane Sagers

GUEST COLUMNIST

The recent snows followed by rain, followed by sunshine, followed by rain and snow are enough to confirm the saying, "If you don't like the weather, just wait a few hours." That unsettled weather -- and the fact that it is March -- means it is getting time to prepare your fruit trees for this year's crop.

If the weather continues to be nasty on the days you set in your mind to pruning your trees, rest easy. There is no reason to rush out in a snowstorm or below zero weather to cut off errant branches. Wait for a pleasant day, sometime before the trees break dormancy.

While sometimes it may seem easier to leave branches alone rather than take a chance on making a wrong cut, now you can learn the skills you need to make the right cuts on your fruit trees with pruning demonstrations tomorrow.

Utah State University Extension County Agent Linden Greenhalgh and Horticulture Specialist Larry Sagers will conduct two tree pruning demonstrations on Friday. The first will be in Tooele at the Speirs Farm -- Barbara Barlow's home -- at 392 W. 20 South from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. At this demonstration, learn proper techniques for pruning older and younger trees as well as mature fruit trees, grapes and raspberries. The pair will also hold a presentation in Erda at the Garden of Erda -- home of Evan and Jennifer Harrison -- 812 E. Bates Canyon Road from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sagers will demonstrate the pruning of young apples and peaches at 2 p.m. at that location.

Keep in mind that the reasons for pruning any tree must fulfill the purpose of the tree. Shade tree pruning is planned to remove dead and diseased branches or those that somehow cause the tree to be endangered or dangerous.

Fruit trees, on the other hand, are pruned to facilitate the production of high quality fruit. They are pruned much differently than shade trees, so do not try to apply fruit pruning concepts to trees in your landscape.

If you prune a tree properly, the tree will be stronger, more vigorous, and more productive. You will remove diseased, damaged or dead wood. Train the tree to the right shape to make it strong enough to support a full crop of fruit that will not break down in snow or wind.

The most important requirement for quality fruit is to provide the interior of the tree with abundant light. You also want to remove branches that will not produce good fruit.

Different trees require different pruning techniques depending on their growth habits and forms. Peach trees, for example, require the most extensive pruning to encourage fruit production. They should be opened up to a vase shape that allows the light to the center of the tree.

Apples are more upright trees and ideally should be encouraged to a central leader form that allows light to come in between the layers of branches. Spurs should not be removed as the fruits grow on them.

If a tree has already been trained to a different shape, continue to encourage growth using that form. Remedial pruning to change the shape of a tree is seldom successful.

If the temptation to postpone tree pruning is creeping in, avoid it. Left unpruned, fruit trees become tall, dense and unmanageable. Prune fruit trees to encourage fruit production and to keep the tree size and shape within bounds to facilitate harvest. When you plant a young tree, prune and shape it that day. Pruning and shaping should begin the day the tree is planted and continue annually through its life. If they are not properly shaped when they are young or if they are left unpruned for several years, they develop too many branches, grow too tall, develop lateral branches that are too long, and the tree grows dense so sunlight doesn't penetrate the interior of the tree.

Tree physiology helps determine the best pruning methods. Our local fruit trees can be categorized into groups. Pomes include apples and pears with multiple seeds around a central core. Fruit buds begin forming one summer, and they differentiate and grow the next. On many of them, the fruits form on spurs -- a small woody stem attached to the branch. Each year those same spurs produce more fruit buds.

Obviously, removing the spurs during pruning or harvesting spoils the trees' ability to produce. The fruit buds form during the summer and develop the next year. Protect the spurs that will produce those fruits.

Peaches, apricots and other stone fruits grow on stems that are attached to the sides of branches. They form on one-year-old wood. To encourage an adequate area of prime, new fruit producing wood, extensively cut stone fruits.

In general, clean up the tree by removing dead, diseased and broken branches that provide a place for insects and diseases to enter. Next remove water sprouts -- long, fast-growing branches that go straight up with wide distances between the nodes -- and suckers -- long, fast-growing branches that extend up from the root.

Take out branches that cross or rub against each other and those that droop or won't produce. Let in light by removing branches that compete with other branches for light, shade the center of the tree, or grow back in toward the center of the tree. Next, take out those that go against the shape of the tree.

With an understanding of how various trees grow and what they require for optimum fruit production, those decisions of what branch to cut will come more easily. Once you have learned the strategies for pruning trees properly, you can have enough confidence to make those pruning cuts, despite knowing that what comes off stays off.