Take Your Pruners For a Walk

Some of my mango trees have finished fruiting for the year. When I pick the last fruit from a tree I try to prune it.

Pictured at the top is a young Kent mango, before pruning.

Pictured at the bottom is the same tree after pruning.

As I look at the two pictures, the pruning looks pretty subtle. You can see the accumulated trimmings near the base of the tree.

Especially for young trees, it is important to have a long term vision for the tree. In this instance, I eliminated weak lower branches and branches that were crossing into the center of the tree, and trimmed back the tallest branches. I also cut most of the tips off for stronger future branching.

I will try to post before and after pictures for a larger tree, so that the pruning might be more obvious. Pruning something every year from every tree is important. Waiting can cause future headaches. We have some very large trees ranging in age from 56 years to over 100 years. Over the last ten years we have worked hard to make these trees smaller, but they are still too big. If you consistently prune trees from a young age, the task should never be overwhelming.

HOURS FOR WEEK OF JUNE 27, 2011

Monday and Wednesday 4:30 - 6pm

Saturday morning 9am - noon

...Because of the July 4th holiday, we will not be open on Monday, July 4.