Many people associate pruning with changing the structure of your tree, to fit a different shape or style. However, this is not always the case. Altering the structure of the tree is known as “Tree Training”. This is a much better way to develop an alternative form for your tree. Pruning should be used to prevent diseases, prevent lopsidedness, and encourage healthier fruit growth.

Pruning is also used to maintain the proper shape of the tree. For example, if you have an abundance of branches, on one particular side of the tree, then you will use pruning to get rid of the larger segments, which weigh down the tree to one side. Think about it more in terms of maintaining the tree, rather than altering it. While pruning is useful occasionally, most of the time you can use training as a healthier and more efficient alternative.

Training has not been around for very long. Through tying down branches, or propping them up from the ground, one can direct the growth of the tree, to take whatever shape they want. This theory is usually used in the early days of the tree, to encourage it to develop fully. If you direct the tree and get it started off on the right foot, you’ll save yourself a lot of pruning time later on.

Usually, training occurs during the summer. Rather than just cutting off all the branches that aren’t going in the right direction, you try to redirect them. The mechanisms you use, can be thought of as orthodontic braces, for your fruit tree. They pull or push the branches, like teeth, in whichever direction you want them to go. Eventually, they naturally grow that way, due to your training.

It can be difficult to decide how exactly to train your tree. There are many different forms and shapes to choose from. Some are meant to allow a high density of trees in one orchard, and some are meant to provide maximum fruit bearing per tree. Depending on where your tree is and how you want it to function, you will have to look for different types and forms, that will perfectly fit your situation.

The theories of training can also be applied, even if you are growing a tree in the traditional (natural) form. Sometimes branches will grow too close together and block each other out, so training them to grow away from each other, can prevent the need to prune them later. This is highly beneficial, even if you are just growing a tree in your backyard, in a non professional environment.

To train a tree, you will need some sort of outside brace, to push or pull a branch. Alternately, if you want to push 2 branches closer together, or further apart, you can place something in between them, or lash them together with rope. Successfully training your branches takes a little imagination, in deciding what to tie things to and what to push things off. I have found that stakes, fences, or simply an upright pole leaning away, works wonders.

There is no tree grower that can’t benefit from using a little training, in their tree growing escapades. Whether you have decided to give your trees a completely new form, or just optimize the branch placement for healthier fruit, there is surely some way that training the branches can benefit you.

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Sally Robson is a South African Internet marketer, who together with her husband Derek, have a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and other non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet, by overcoming the many obstacles facing them. They have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. Sally has a passion for gardening. For more articles and advice on gardening topics, visit Sally at: http://www.dersalsites.com/sallysgardeningtips/

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