Fruit Tree Pruning in Salt Lake City, UT

Fruit tree pruning in Salt Lake City is its own kind of work. Plenty of valley yards still have an apricot, cherry, peach, apple or pear tree, sometimes several, and many of them haven't been pruned in years. They grow tall and dense, fruit only at the top where no one can reach it, and drop branches under the weight of a good crop. A shade tree is pruned mainly for safety and shape; a fruit tree is pruned so light reaches the inside of the canopy, branches are strong enough to carry fruit, and the tree stays low enough to pick from a ladder.

Fire blight on apples, pears and crabapples

Fire blight is a bacterial disease of the rose family. USU Extension lists pear, apple, crabapple, hawthorn, pyracantha, cotoneaster and mountain ash among its hosts. Infected shoots wilt and turn black as if scorched, and the tips often bend into a shepherd's crook. USU recommends inspecting trees while dormant, cutting 8 to 12 inches below any visible canker, and burning or trashing the infected wood rather than composting it. It also warns that heavy nitrogen fertilizer pushes the tender growth fire blight attacks first.

Canker and borers on stone fruit

Stone fruits such as peach, cherry and apricot are especially prone to cytospora canker, which USU Extension calls one of the most common diseases of fruit and shade trees in Utah. It shows up as sunken, discolored patches of bark that can girdle a branch, often oozing amber gum. USU says flatheaded borers mainly attack fruit trees, especially stone fruits, apples and pears, when they are stressed by drought. Pruning out cankered and dead limbs, avoiding stubs and keeping the tree watered all help.

When to prune fruit trees here

Late winter, before buds open, is the main pruning season for most fruit trees in the Salt Lake Valley. The structure is easy to see and cuts close quickly in spring. USU Extension advises avoiding late-summer pruning because it can leave trees more open to winter injury, and it notes that fruit trees are among the thin-barked trees that suffer sunscald on the southwest side of the trunk in winter. A badly overgrown tree is usually brought back over two or three winters rather than all at once, since removing too much in one year triggers a flush of upright water sprouts.

Spraying is a separate job

This service is pruning. Fruit tree sprays and borer treatments are regulated pesticide work, and USU Extension notes that some products are restricted-use and require a licensed applicator. If your tree needs treatment, we tell you what we see so you can arrange it.

Trees past saving

Some old fruit trees are hollow, split or so cankered that pruning only delays the end. In that case we say so and quote removal as an option.