Pruning Small Fruit Crops-MG

Hopefully now that the majority of winter weather has passed is a good time to inspect, prune and/or remove winter or other damage to small fruit crops. A few of the many reasons to prune small fruit crops regularly are: 1) maintain productive fruiting wood, 2) increase efficient use of sunlight, 3) increase air circulation, 4) removal of broken, dead, diseased wood to prevent disease problems, and 5) pruning will produce a better quality, more consistent crop over a longer period of time.

Pruning cuts should be made with a sharp pruning tool. Crushed or ragged cuts invite disease problems. Hand pruners, loppers, and pruning saws should be cleaned after every pruning season and between pruning different small fruit crops. Keep blades sharp and remove build-up of sap or plant material on tools regularly during pruning.

Reference in this article will be made to thinning and heading cuts. A heading cut is made at the tip of a branch. The bud directly below the heading cut will indicate the direction the branch will grow in the future. This cut aids in keeping the plant in-bounds, but may produce more lateral or side branches resulting in a dense, stocky plant. Thinning cuts remove the entire limb or cane from the plant. This may require removing a lateral side branch from the main stem or at ground level. Thinning cuts remove crowded unproductive canes and limbs, reducing the competition for nutrients and light and improving plant hardiness and fruit quality.

Blueberries: Prune to promote growth of strong new wood. Without pruning plants produce crowded twiggy growth and small berries. Prune during late winter before bud swell. Pruning in the dormant season reduces the chance of freeze damage and enables cut surfaces to heal. Prune newly planted blueberries lightly the first three years, remove twiggy sprouts at the base of the plant.

For blueberries four years and older: 1) remove dead or diseased limbs, 2) remove approximately 20% of older limbs because these become less productive with age, 3) remove the weakest limbs next, 4) remove weak twiggy growth from the base to the top, and 5) remove enough of the plants’ structure to allow good light penetration.

Brambles: Blackberries and raspberries are perennial plants that produce new canes each year. The canes themselves are biennial in that they grow vegetatively one year and bear fruit and die the following year. An exception is Heritage raspberries whose canes grow and bear fruit the same year.

Brambles require a conscientious pruning effort. The nature of the thorny canes makes pruning difficult to next to impossible at times. Brambles should be confined to a designated row width (usually 1-foot). Remove canes and suckers between rows by pulling them out (not cut out) during the summer. If rows are allowed to get too wide harvesting becomes difficult and inside plants cannot get enough sunlight to produce high quality fruit.

Many of the same pruning techniques apply to brambles: 1) remove dead, damaged, or diseased canes, 2) cut canes back to 24 to 30 inches above ground for erect varieties and 40 to 60 inches for semi-erect or trailing varieties supported by wire or trellis, 3) cut back side branches to 4 to 6 inches, and 4) in dense plantings remove all but 5 or 6 of the strongest canes from each crown.

Grapes: Pruning is the most important cultural practice affecting production and one of the most neglected practices of home plantings. Many training and pruning systems are in use. The system you use is dependent on climate, cultivar, method of harvest, and type of market for the fruit.

Pruning should begin at planting time and continue each year. By the fourth year a grapevine should have two or more branches extending in both directions along a supporting trellis wire. Select one fruiting branch along each wire, prune this branch leaving 6 to 8 fruiting buds depending on space available between plants and attach it securely to the supporting wire or trellis. Remove any suckers or sprouts along the main trunk or those originating from the base at ground level. The following year’s pruning will be to maintain the original 6 to 8 buds. Leave these vines in place and remove the previous year’s growth by making pruning cuts above or outside the buds.


		University of Missouri Extension Jasper County jasperco@missouri.edu Web site maintained by: Virginia Bryan bryanv@missouri.edu Last updated: 09/02/2009