Orange Tree Pruning

Orange tree pruning does not have to go against its natural growth tendencies, but to harness its full natural potential, correcting its growth, guiding it to your specified necessities. Orange tree pruning falls basically in to three categories to your liking; orange tree pruning can be done for transplantation, formation and fructification.

1. Orange Tree Pruning for Transplantation

Orange tree pruning for transplantation consists in removing a tree from one place to another of your liking. During this process it is necessary to be extremely careful in digging out the roots, no matter how careful you are, you will always break some roots, so make sure you administer clean cuts to promote rapid new root growth and to avoid bacterial development.

Another factor you have to consider in orange tree pruning for transplantation is since you will be reducing the amount of roots for absorption, to establish a balance between absorption and leaf evaporation itself, you will have to remove at least half or all of the leaves.

Again, be sure you leave clean cuts with a disinfected pruning scissors and/or saw.

After the orange tree pruning for transplantation, if you live in a very sunny and hot climate and since you have removed half or all of the leaves, to protect the thin bark from the sun you should either paint the trunk with a white water based paint or get some rags, tear them in to long 15cm wide strips and wrap them around the trunk.

The bark of an orange tree is very sensitive and if too much is exposed to the sun, the bark may crack, thus reducing sap circulation!

Orange tree pruning for tree formation basically consists in cutting excess wood to form your desired shape. This of course depends if the tree is for ornamental purposes or fruit production.

When the tree is about three years old you select three vigorous branches 70cm to 90cm from the ground that are evenly spaced between them when you look at the tree from the above. Cut off the other branches.

Provoking this formation will guarantee in the future that these three branches will grow strong as a necessary support when laden with fruit.

The more branches you leave not only will you have smaller fruit but as well thinner and weaker branches that can break and ruin your tree and fruit.

Do not over cut branches because you will want the tree to have its own shade to protect its branches and trunk from the sun. Every year after, remove any longer chutes and unproductive wood.

Orange tree pruning for fructification in general is to provoke high productivity. When a orange tree is in its highest production age you basically remove any branches that look weak, that are deformed, branches that have too many chutes grown in the same place, the ones that are badly positioned and branches that are overlapping or touching another branch.

Orange tree pruning for fruit production reaches its best balance when the tree is tall enough only that a person can pick the highest oranges from a tree without the use of a ladder, this to reduce labor costs and when the base of the leaves are cut about 50cm from the ground.

Don’t forget that the bottom branches when laden with fruit will slowly bend towards the ground.

You don’t want oranges resting on the dirt and have the wind shake, scratch and ruin the skin.