Keep Fruit Trees Small

By Richard Flowers, ACCNP, Green Thumb Nursery, Ventura

Today most homes sit on smaller parcels with limited planting area. If you want to grow your favorite fruit tree and think you only have room for one, think twice: by size-managing your fruit trees, you can actually plant several. Imagine a plum tree over 15 feet tall or an apricot tree 30-plus feet high, for most homeowners that’s too big and takes up too much space.

The Secret Is Summer Pruning, Not Rootstock

Did you know a fruit tree can be over 15 years old and only 5 or 6 feet tall and still loaded with fruit? The answer is summer pruning. Here’s the thing most people don’t realize: a “semi-dwarf” peach, apricot, cherry, or nectarine still reaches close to 15-20 feet, and a standard can top 30. Dwarfing rootstocks don’t control size nearly as much as people expect, the only practical way to keep most fruit trees under about eight feet is by pruning (Dave Wilson Nursery). This is the heart of Backyard Orchard Culture, the small-tree method developed by Dave Wilson Nursery (whose bare-root trees we carry).

And here’s why the timing matters: summer pruning keeps a tree small, while dormant (winter) pruning makes it bigger. When you cut in summer, you remove leaves the tree uses to make food, and you take off the branch tips that carry its growth hormones, so the tree slows down and stays compact. Cut the same tree hard in winter, while its energy is stored in the roots, and it answers with a burst of vigorous spring regrowth (UC Marin Master Gardeners). That’s why size control is a summer job.

Pick Your Height and Hold It

The secret to keeping a fruit tree at a convenient height is simple: pick the height you want and don’t let it go past it. If a shoot climbs above your goal, cut it back or remove it. You can hold any fruit tree, semi-dwarf or standard, to a chosen height this way. Want it low, prune more; want it higher, prune less. The height is the pruner’s decision. And don’t worry about losing fruit: the vigorous growth you prune off would never have become fruiting wood, that wood formed earlier. Keeping trees small has real payoffs: you harvest at a comfortable height, and spraying, thinning, and pruning all get easier and safer.

The First Cut at Planting

For a new bare-root fruit tree (or a dormant tree in a container), the most important cut comes right at planting. Top the young whip as low as about 15 inches, knee height, to force new, low branches so the whole tree stays low and manageable (Dave Wilson Nursery). This is a deliberate size-control heading cut, not the harmful “topping” of a mature shade tree. You can top higher, up to about four feet, if there are already well-spaced side limbs or you want a taller form. A large-caliper tree (3/4-inch and up) sometimes won’t push limbs low on the trunk; top it just above any existing low limbs, or about 28 inches if there are none, then lower it further once new growth starts. After the spring flush, cut the new growth back by half; in late summer, cut the new growth back by half again. Size control and low fruiting wood begin in that first year. (This method is for deciduous fruit, peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, cherries, apples, and pears; evergreen citrus is pruned differently.)

Keeping It Small Each Year

In the second year and beyond, do the same thing: cut new growth back by half in spring and again in late summer. Pruning two or three times, spring, early summer, and late summer, is the easiest way to manage height, and late June through August is prime time for the size-controlling summer cuts. Just don’t get carried away in one session: take no more than about a third at a time and leave roughly 80% of the foliage, so you don’t expose and sunburn the interior limbs (UC Marin Master Gardeners).

Plant Several Trees in One Space

Here’s the real payoff of small trees: you can fit several where you thought you had room for one. In Backyard Orchard Culture you can plant two, three, or four trees in a single hole (as close as 18 inches apart), or in a hedgerow about 36 inches apart, and keep them all small by pruning. Close planting also naturally restrains each tree’s vigor. Best of all, four trees of varieties that ripen at different times give you ten to twelve weeks of fresh fruit instead of the two or three weeks a single tree provides (Dave Wilson Nursery).

Removing a Large Limb

When you need to remove a large limb, use the three-cut method so the bark doesn’t tear. First, saw partway through the limb on the underside, a bit out from your final cut. Second, cut all the way through a little farther out to drop the limb. Third, make the final cut just outside the branch collar, the slightly swollen ring where the limb meets the trunk. Don’t cut flush into the collar, and don’t leave a protruding stub; both invite decay. A clean cut just outside the collar lets the tree seal the wound over. (The same cut applies when you remove water sprouts and suckers.)

Taming an Old, Overgrown Tree

What if you already have an old, unruly tree you want to bring down to a manageable size? First, a reality check: if it’s taller than 20 feet and you’d feel unsafe on a ladder, or the job is just bigger than you want, call a professional arborist. If the tree is older than about 20 years and past its productive peak, a drastic reduction can do more harm than good, the trauma can leave it open to other problems, and it may be wiser to replace it with a great-tasting new variety. If you love the fruit and want to keep it, bring it down in stages over three years: reduce the height by about a third the first winter (this stimulates lower limb development), then in spring remove the uppermost spring flush to redirect growth downward. The next winter, take off half of the remaining excess height and again remove the uppermost spring growth, keeping lower shoots as future scaffold limbs. The third winter, make your final call on height and prune to it.

Green Thumb Nursery carries Dave Wilson bare-root fruit trees in season, along with everything you need to start your own backyard orchard, stop by and our garden experts will help you pick varieties and get that first cut right. Browse our outdoor plants too.

Sources:

• Dave Wilson Nursery
• UC Marin Master Gardeners
• Dave Wilson Nursery
• Dave Wilson Nursery

Do you like what you see? Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get content like this every week!

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!

Keeping Fruit Trees Small: FAQs

Can you really keep a fruit tree small?

Yes. By summer pruning, you can hold almost any fruit tree, even a semi-dwarf or standard, to a pickable 6 to 8 feet, or lower. A dwarf rootstock alone won’t do it; the ongoing pruning is what controls the size.

How tall do fruit trees grow if you don’t prune them?

Left unpruned, a standard fruit tree can top 30 feet, and even a semi-dwarf reaches 15 to 20 feet, a dwarf rootstock only slows that down, it doesn’t stop it. The height is the pruner’s decision: pick a ceiling, most people choose 6 to 8 feet, and cut back anything that climbs above it each summer.

How do you keep a peach tree small and compact?

Peaches and nectarines are some of the easiest fruit trees to keep compact, because they fruit on last year’s wood, so hard summer pruning won’t cost you a crop. Top the young tree low at planting, then cut the new growth back by about half after the spring flush and again in late summer. Kept on that schedule, a peach or nectarine holds to a pickable 6 to 8 feet indefinitely.

How do you keep an apple tree small?

The same way as any other fruit tree, by summer pruning, not by rootstock. Apples and pears bear on long-lived spurs, so once the low framework is set, keep the tree at your chosen height by shortening the vigorous upright shoots each summer. Prune only lightly in winter to shape it, since hard dormant cuts just trigger a flush of regrowth.

When should you summer prune fruit trees?

Cut the new growth back by about half after the spring flush, and again in late summer; late June through August is the prime window. Don’t take more than about a third at once, and leave roughly 80% of the foliage so the inner limbs don’t sunburn.

How short can you cut a bare-root fruit tree at planting?

You can top a young bare-root whip as low as about 15 inches, knee height, to force low branches so the whole tree stays low. If it already has well-spaced side limbs, you can leave it a little taller.

Does summer or winter pruning keep a tree smaller?

Summer. Summer pruning removes leaves and growth-hormone-rich tips, slowing the tree and keeping it compact. Dormant winter pruning does the opposite, it triggers a burst of vigorous spring regrowth, so size control is a summer job.

How many fruit trees can you plant in one spot?

In Backyard Orchard Culture you can plant two to four trees in a single hole (about 18 inches apart) and keep them small by pruning. Choosing varieties that ripen at different times stretches your harvest to ten or twelve weeks.