Garden tips for January Garden tips for January (January 07, 2005)

'tis the season for pruning -- with authority

by Jack McKinnon

The holidays are past and it is time for pruning. In the tips this month I will cover pruning roses, fruit trees, vines and other deciduous plants (those that lose their leaves in winter). If you can get these techniques perfected, you are well on your way to a spectacular garden. Here are the tips:

1. Cut out the worst first. Remember the three Ds when trying to figure out how to start. Always remove dead, dying or diseased branches first.

2. Try to make your cuts clean and close to the trunk or stem you are removing the branch from. No stubs, unless you want someplace to hang your coat.

3. Roses generally get cut way (and I mean way ) down. Depending on the rose you need to remove 50 to 90 percent of the plant material. Be bold, the plant will appreciate it.

4. Make your cuts on roses right above a bud. Choose a bud that is pointing away from the center of the plant. Cut at the same angle that the bud is pointing. If the bud is not out far enough to see the angle then cut at an angle that a drop of water will roll off. Not too steep though.

5. On fruit trees, prune so the tree can hold up the fruit it produces. Hold your hand out with your palm up and your fingers pointing straight up toward the ceiling. This is what the canopy of a correctly pruned fruit tree should look like.

6. Many fruit trees fruit on spurs. The spur is a short branch-like structure that supports the flower and thus the fruit. Try to save as many spurs as possible.

7. Keep your trees low enough to reach with a ladder and pole picker (a special basket on a pole for picking fruit). In this way you can retrieve all the fruit and save the mess of rotting fruit on the ground.

8. For vines, remove most if not all of last year's growth. Save the spurs on wisteria because this is where your flower show comes from. Be bold with vines, they come back in full force and give a better show when pruned with authority.

9. If you are training your vine on a fence, trellis or pergola, then this is the time to determine the direction the vine will go. Usually vines are trained to the outside of a structure. This makes a clean look and keeps the structure from getting overwhelmed. It also makes for easier painting of the structure when the time comes.

10. Recycle your green waste to the landfill project. They have award-winning composting methods and will provide you with compost when you need it. Most of us live in urban forests. Recycling and composting are what keep it healthy. Look up into your trees sometime and note the wildlife that lives so near.

Happy New Year and good gardening.

Jack McKinnon worked in the Sunset Magazine gardens for 12 years and has been a private garden coach for six years. He can be reached at (650) 879-3261, or by e-mail at jcmckinnon@earthlink.net.

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