Pruning of Tropical Fruit Trees - A Primer

by Roberta Seltzer

Fruit tree pruning helps yield high quality fruit as well as limits a tree's height and spread. The result is a stronger tree.

You will need a sharp, quality hane pruner, a lopper and a hand saw. Never remove more than one-third of a tree's canopy at any one time. Trees can be pruned to thin out the tree, allowing wind to pass through without damaging the limbs.

Most deciduous fruit trees are pruned when they are dormant-the end of February to the beginning of March, depending on weather. Pruning stimulates shoot growth near the cut.

Evergreen trees are also best pruned in winter before they flower. Most evergreen trees, such as  citrus, avocados and mangoes, are pruned to keep them from getting out of hand.

Here are some tips I have learned:

Avocado (Persea americana): Tree tops should be cut back to 15 feet. Anually removing a few upper limbs back to their crotches will enable fruit to be produced on the lower limbs. My tree survived Hurricane Wilma in part by being less than 15 feet high.

Banana (Musa spp.): These have underground stems  (rhizomes) from which the flowering and fruiting stalks arise. Leaving only two or three thick stemmed pups ( suckers ) per mother tree gives you better fruit. A water sucker has wide first leaves and should always be removed.

Grumichama (Eugenia dombeyi): It is a great tree for homeowners; it is slow growing, has beautiful glossy, green leaves and a very tasty cherry fruit a month after it blooms.The only pruning needed is cutting dead branches and shaping.

Lychee (Litchi chinensis): Pruning should be done right after harvest in order to allow new shoots and leaves to harden off before the onset of winter temperatures. Cut back tops of the trees to 10 to 15 feet.

Mamey Sapote (Calocarpum sapota): Maintenance pruning involves removal of narrow angled ( V-shaped) main branches, leaving wide-angled branches. Trees should be kept to a height of 16 to 18 feet.

Mango (Mangifera indica): Formative pruning of young trees will increase the lateral branches and builds a strong framework for tree growth. Trees should be limited to about 15 feet. A trick to controlling the amount of fruit set is timing when the tree is pruned. Don't prune the tree if you want it to produce fruit. If the tree is too large or needs shaping, prune it after picking and before the end of August. If you want shade and not fruit, then prune the tree after September. This will disrupt the bloom cycle.

Star fruit (Averrhoa carambola): Fall removal of upright limbs and removal of dead branches will reduce tree height and maintain fruit production. My tree has been bearing fruit within a year after having lost its' fruit and leaves due to hurricanes.

This information has been derived from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/, the "Florida Fruit" book and my own experience.

Palms - Do Not Over-Trim

By Paul Craft

The pruning of palms is far simpler than pruning woody ornamentals. Dead leaves and old fruit bracts are all that need to be cut from palms, it is easier still for crownshift palms because the leaves shed immediately when they turn brown. Picking the old leaves up and disposing of them is all there is to do.

It is best to cut leaves only after they have completely turned brown. Palms will translocate nutrients from the older leaves to the newer leaves. By cutting leaves that are still green, the tree is robbed of these nutrients. At times, partially green or yellow leaves can be quite unsightly and it is safe to cut these leaves if they are more than 50 percent brown.

If it is desired to prune a palm, the general recommendation is to trim off only those leaves that hang below the horizontal plane of the crown, leaving a sufficient leaf crown to maintain the health of the palm. Trimming any more can be injurious to the palm in the long term, especially if done on a regular basis. Allow the palm to grow back a complete rounded crown before pruning again. It is also particularly important that a regular fertilizer regimen be followed to guarantee nutrients available to the palm since it is being robbed of nutrients when the leaves are cut.

Leaves should be cut as close to the trunk as possible. The remaining leaf base will eventually fall off, but it may take several years. In some species, such as Phoenix, an interesting pattern can emerge on the trunk by cutting the leaves off at a certain point, adding an ornamental feature to the palm. Trying to strip the leaf bases from the trunk before they are ready to fall off can cause scarring of the trunk.

Equipment used to trim palms should be treated with isopropyl alcohol or hydrogen peroxide before moving from one palm to another. This will help prevent the spread of any disease such as lethal yellowing or fungal diseases.

Untrained tree trimmers partake in a practice called hurricane trimming that is detrimental to the palms. It has gone on so long that many homeowners think it is a practice that does not harm the plant. Palms are very wind-resistant plants, not bothered by high winds nearly as much as woody trees are, yet there is a myth that cutting most of the leaves from a palm will help it survive a hurricane. The opposite is true, severe trimming jobs weaken the crown to the point it can snap off in moderate winds.

If the hurricane cut is done on a yearly basis, the leaves will become smaller and the trunk will become narrower, resulting in what is called pencil pointing. The palm will become weaker and more prone to disease, nutritional problems and breakage if high winds do arise.