When is the best time to prune sugar oranges?

Sugar orange pruning effect

Shaping young sugar orange trees can build a solid skeleton, accelerate the formation of the crown, and advance the time of fruiting. Shaping and pruning is one of the main techniques for high and stable yields.

Sugar orange pruning time

Sugar oranges are generally pruned twice, once in winter and once in summer, which can make the sugar oranges grow faster and bear fruit faster.

Sugar oranges are usually pruned in summer, and the outer branches can be thinned out to increase ventilation and light transmission, and stimulate the germination of latent buds on the branches.

How to prune sugar oranges

1. Strong Tree

   If the sugar orange grows vigorously and has strong branching ability, the branches will tend to droop after fruiting. Improper pruning will lead to vigorous growth on the upper part and poor growth on the lower part. The method of combining thinning and shortening, appropriate retraction, and increasing the number of inner branches should be adopted.

2. Moderate growth trees

   This type of tree has moderate growth vigor, with fewer weak and strong branches. You can lightly thin out the one- or two-year-old branches, appropriately shorten the weak branches, retract the covering branches, and cultivate the inner branches.

3. Weak Trees

   The growth of sugar oranges is not good, with many weak branches and weak branching ability. It is easy to produce new shoots inside, but the new shoots on the outer branches are weak. You can adopt a combination of thinning and shorting, and appropriate heavy pruning, mainly to renew the branch sequence, shorten the weak branches on the periphery of the crown, shorten the upper layer of the shade branches under the cover, and retract and press down the weak top branches to make them sprout new shoots and cultivate strong branches inside.

4. Fruit-bearing trees in the big year

   In a good year, fruit trees have more flower branches and fruit branches but fewer nutrient branches. In order to ensure a certain amount of flowers in the next year, light pruning can be done, and only dry, weak, aging, diseased and insect-infested branches should be cut off. Appropriate nutrient branches and vigorously growing branches that drop flowers and fruits (with more than 3 leaves) should be retained. Some of these branches can bloom and bear fruit in the next year. Weak branch sequences should be shortened, cut back and renewed.

Precautions for pruning sugar oranges

When pruning sugar oranges, it is necessary to cooperate with fertilizer and water management and disease and pest control. Spray the fruit and vegetable strengthener before the sugar oranges bloom, during the young fruit stage, and during the fruit expansion stage to meet the physiological needs of fruit development, so that the fruits can be produced faster. It is non-toxic, safe and hygienic, and has no side effects.