Eight Reasons to Prune Your Plants in Summer
Pruning is an important task for keeping your plants healthy and looking their best. It’s often overlooked, but it’s just as important as pruning in winter.
Here are eight reasons why you should prune your plants in summer:
Encourages More Fruit Buds
Pruning fruit trees in summer helps encourage more fruit buds to develop. This means you’ll get a bigger harvest next year!
Prevents Disease
Pruning can help prevent disease by removing weak or diseased branches. This allows air to circulate better, which helps keep your plants healthy.
Removes Old Fruited Wood
After a few years, the productivity of fruit bushes will decline. Pruning back the thickest, oldest stems will help encourage new growth and improve fruit production.
Restricts the Size of Fruit Bushes
Left unpruned, fruit bushes can outgrow their space. Pruning back the youngest growth limits the size of plants and encourages more productive sideshoots to form.
Encourages New Growth
With the exception of autumn fruiting raspberries, cane fruits produce new canes each year. Old, fruited canes can be cut down to the ground to make space for new stems.
Promotes Better Flowering
Climbers like honeysuckle and wisteria can become a tangled mess by the end of the season. Pruning in summer removes soft growth and allows flower-promoting potash to build up in the plant.
Keeps Shrubs in Shape
Overgrown shrubs produce their flowers high up on the plant, where they can’t be seen. Pruning in summer helps keep shrubs in shape and encourages flowering.
Helps Train Shrubs
Early training and shaping of shrubs is crucial for creating a strong framework of branches and better flowering in the plant’s early years.
