Find out how to prune fruit trees properly, plus tips for timing your pruning right.

It’s difficult to find someone to prune several kinds of fruit trees. In fruit-producing areas, such skilled workers are easier to find.

Homes & Gardens Fruit trees need attention this time of year. Here’s a guide to planting, pruning and spraying Published: Feb. 22, 2025, 6:00 a.m.

My fruit trees have not been pruned for two or three years. Could you give me some suggestions on how to prune them?

Pruning can be used to train or direct growth, rejuvenate an overgrown shrub, and increase light to the middle of a fruit tree. It can be used to clean up broken branches.

Related: 9 Fruit Trees You Can Grow Indoors, According to Horticulturists Thai Semi-Dwarf Lime Tree saisi1014 / Getty Images ...

Most fruit trees are grafted onto semi-dwarf root stocks. But semi-dwarf trees can get up to 35 feet without pruning. I like to keep them at a maximum height of 12 to 15 feet.

"Open-vase" pruning allows fruit to develop inside the tree and on growing branches, explains master gardener Brian Minter.