Proper pruning is one of the most important factors in the successful cultivation of this species. Failure to systematically shorten peach shoots results in first transferring the fruiting to the top of the crown, and then tilting the entire tree.To avoid this, don't be afraid of pruning long branches.
In the case of this species, the principle "better to trim badly than not to trim the tree at all" works perfectly well.The prevailing opinion among fruit growers-practitioners is that peaches are easy to cut and that you need to try very hard to cut the trees incorrectly.Cutting peaches is not too complicated, as it mainly involves cutting old branches so that new ones can grow in their place.Peaches belong to an exceptionally small group of fruit trees that bear fruit on annuals.
For this reason, the main purpose of pruning is to stimulate trees to produce a large number of young shoots. This is very important, because only the right number of one-year shoots will guarantee abundant yield.
Three types of shoots
There are three types of shoots in the peach crown. Vegetative shoots are the least valuable, because they practically do not produce any fruit. They are usually thin, delicate and covered almost exclusively with leaf buds. Cut out these types of shoots completely, leaving only 1-2 eyes. The next type of shoot is typical fruit-bearing twigs.They are usually larger in diameter and at least as thick as a pencil. They are the most valuable because they produce the largest and most beautiful fruits.
The last type of shoots are shoots with flower buds.Usually they do not exceed a few centimeters in length, so we leave them without cutting.They are valuable, despite the fact that they have smaller fruit that will need to be thinned in summer.
