Many are in agreement that some scaffold selection should occur on one year old almond trees. These cuts remove unwanted branches that may lead to included wood and weak branching structure in the future. Most of this pruning usually occurs in the dormant period following the first year of growth, but is this the best time?
Over the past few years, I have been observing an increase frequency of fungal cankers associated with pruning wounds. The fungi associated with these cankers are part of the Botryosphaeriaceae which is a large group of fungi that are found within the environment. They have been found to infect pruning wounds of grape, almonds, walnuts, and other perennial crops.
This past year we conducted spore trapping studies to determine when these pathogens are present in the orchard. Spore traps were placed for 7 days and collected on a weekly basis. The spores trapped on the slides were cultured and identified. What we found was similar to what has been observed in grape. Spores were released from fungi within the Botryosphaeriaceae in association with rain events (pg 3 of 2013 Proceedings of APS Pacific Division). In other words, when it rained during the seven day period, we trapped spores of the fungi that infect almond pruning wounds.
So back to the original question – when should we prune first (and second) leaf almonds? In order to prevent pruning wound infections, pruning of young trees should not occur when rain is in the forecast. Planning around the weather may delay pruning, but research by Carolyn Debuse (former advisor in Yolo/Solano County) has shown no impact when pruning as late as leaf bud break. She found that pruning after full leaf expansion did reduce tree growth during the second growing season, but the impact of pruning this late was not found after the completion of the third year of growth. Furthermore, this difference in growth with the full leaf expansion pruning treatment was only found in ‘Nonpareil,’ not in the ‘Winters’ or ‘Monterey’ (2011 report from ABCs Almond Culture and Orchard Management). Studies are still needed to determine how early we can prune without impacting tree growth.
Bill Thompson
October 12, 2013For many years a recommendation to prune 1st leaf trees as they more to 1 year old is at the time bud push is occurring.
This limits the chance of diseases entering a dormant bud situation since the flow of tree sap is outward, thus sealing the pruning wound.
David Doll
October 15, 2013Thanks Bill!
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I think there might be some merit to pruning when the tree is “active.” I will talk to my collaborators and see if we can look at the differences in healing times due to tree activity.
David
Roy Gill
February 1, 2015answer the question of what is “1st leaf.” Young trees coming out after planting or the time between first year’s growth after planting and the start of second year’s growth after pruning scaffold. One year old trees vs. 1st leaf trees. I have been given as many answers as there were questions.
David Doll
February 1, 2015Roy,
The term “first leaf” is colloquially used because of the varying age of trees coming out of the nursery (bare rooted are one year old, potted may be younger). It means the first time a tree has leaves after planting within the orchard. So a bareroot planted in the winter of 2015 or a potted tree planted in the spring of 2015 will be in its first leaf all the way until it pushes new leaves in the spring of 2016.
A fall planted potted tree makes this term a bit more confusing to use. If the orchard was planted as potted trees, I usually just ask for the month, year of planting.
David