Selecting Branches

Branches to remove or modify.Note particularly the eye-poking branch at G. Frontal branches should feature only in the upper third of the tree.

Understanding Buds

Terminal buds, those at the tip of the shoot, contain in themselves the entire potential for the lenghthening of the shoot.They send a hormone signal back to the other buds behind them, the axial buds that are contained between the leaves and the stem,that does not allow these buds to develop into shoots.

Pruning the bud at A stops the shoot from lenghthening and allows axial bud at B to form a shoot. Development pruning is necessary when a branch is too bare. This involves hard pruning in the growing season which causes numerous buds to break from the nodes further back near the trunk.