To prune or not to prune

摘要

I have long been amazed by how pecan growers love to prune their mature trees. January and February is a slow time and we now have great equipment that is affordable and easy to use. So, off to the orchard we go and destroy the trees. Peaches and grapes need lots of pruning; over 50 percent of peach trees are pruned off and 99 percent of grapes every year. But zero, for pecans. A pecan bears on new current-season shoot from a non-pruned shoot. When we cut off a limb on a pecan tree, vigorous compensatory growth results and it takes at least 2 years for the vigor to slow down enough to bear pecans. The normal shape of a mature bearing pecan tree is wider than it is tall.