How to prune a walnut: everything you need to know
One of the most crucial reasons for pruning walnuts is to encourage fruit production. But this is not unique, because other purposes of pruning are: to facilitate harvesting, direct growth and formation of trees, improve ventilation and facilitate the penetration of sunlight. Juvenile walnuts are pruned in their early years of development to determine their structure. Shaping trees is crucial because it affects the quantity and quality of crops, ease of harvesting, and other agricultural activities. Many people don’t know how to prune a walnut.
For this reason, we will devote this article to describing everything you need to know about how to prune a walnut, when to do it and what aspects you should take into account.
pruning a walnut tree
Pruning mature walnut trees to maintain their structure and neat the interior of the tree improves sunlight penetration and ventilation inside the plant. All these activities benefit the production of nuts in the future harvest. Pruning of mature walnut trees is done annually or every two years.
When it comes to pruning walnuts, we must take certain criteria into account. If there is one thing we need to consider when planning walnut pruning, it is the forecast of frost after pruning. Like other fruit trees, If frost occurs after pruning, walnut trees may be damaged. Therefore, whenever there is a risk of frost (temperatures close to 0 degrees), pruning should be postponed until the threat has passed.
Therefore, you should always adapt your pruning to the tree’s rest periods. Generally speaking, this is a good time to prune your walnut tree whether it’s behind schedule winter or early springbefore the tree becomes energetic again if frost is not expected. This will reduce sap loss and as the growth phase approaches, the wound will soon begin to heal. In climates with slightly colder winters, fall pruning may be a good option.
While crucial pruning such as shaping, production or regeneration should be done during the cold season, green pruning is not required. A good time to green your walnuts is early or mid-summer, when it’s the warmest.
what tools do I need
To learn how to prune a walnut tree, you will need several tools, depending on the size of the tree and the type of pruning you want to do. Here is a list of some walnut tree pruning tools:
- One-handed pruning shears: It can cut branches with a diameter of up to 2.5 cm. These scissors are more recommended for trimming greenery.
- Two-handed scissors: We can cut branches with a diameter of up to 5 cm.
- They are used to cut branches with a diameter of 5 to 20 cm. For larger branches and trunks we will need a chainsaw.
- Chainsaw: They are used to cut chunky logs over 20 cm. There are electric and gasoline chainsaws that apply batteries or power cords. This is the name of scissors, a saw or a chainsaw with a telescopic handle that reaches the highest branches. With these tools we can cut branches at a height of about 5 or 6 m.
- Stairs: It is crucial to follow safety rules and not swing from the top of a ladder. Remember that you need to go down a few steps and your waist should not go beyond the last step. Falling from a height is perilous in such missions.
- Security elements such as gloves, glasses, equipment, shoes… don’t forget to protect yourself and work safely.
- It is recommended to sterilize knives before cutting them. This will assist prevent fruit tree diseases.
How to prune a walnut tree
To prune a walnut tree, we must first know the type of pruning we intend to do, as well as the age of the fruit tree. Pruning a teenage walnut tree that is growing and requires training in pruning it is not the same as pruning a mature walnut tree. It will be necessary to think more about production and raise harvests.
How to prune a teenage walnut tree
Juvenile walnuts require formative pruning to establish the central growth axis of the rest of the tree. We can say it a walnut tree is teenage when it is less than 5 or 6 years venerable. This is relative as trees vary more or less depending on region, climate, variety…
Pruning during this growing season is intended to direct the tree’s growth and define its structure. We will see what type of pruning we need to carry out at this stage of development:
Formative pruning
It involves managing the structure and growth of the tree in its early years. Because this is quite vigorous pruning, it should be done while the tree is standing, which is early spring or fall in areas where winters are not too chilly. Shaft forming trimming is done as follows:
- In the first year we need to prune all the branches of the tree to encourage germination from the lower branches.
- The main branch appears in year 2. We leave the lower branches except those that grow from the lower half of the trunk.
- In year 3 we can the main branch to 2/3 of its length and remove the branches which grew into the cup at an open angle.
Fruit pruning
Its goal is to create secondary production branches. The idea is to choose 3 or 4 main branches that we want the rest of the tree to grow from. The inclination of the main branch should not be too great, so that it does not break under the weight of the crop in the future. In this way, we will trim the suckers growing from these branches, trim them slightly to about 2/3 of their length, thus establishing the structure of the tree.
How to prune a mature walnut tree
Pruning an adult walnut to maintain its shape and neat the interior of the tree promotes ventilation and lithe in the crown. This is called production pruning, although rejuvenation and greening pruning can also be done at this stage.
Production trimming
This pruning is intended to take advantage of the amount of sunlight captured by the canopy, maintaining its shape to improve the quality and quantity of the harvest. Its purpose is to cleanse and brighten the branches to facilitate lithe access and fruiting. Split cups are better than spherical cups because they raise the exposure surface and make the most of the lithe. You should also remove unproductive branches or suckers, as well as side branches growing inside the tree.
As we have already said, in addition to ensuring higher quality fruit, the yield of trees has also been improved. We will proceed as follows:
- First, we will remove the biggest suckers, because they are not very productive and suck the sap from the branches they grow from.
- We will leave the weakest suckers or buds inside the tree to shade the structure of the tree.
- We need to prune the lower branches because they receive less lithe and therefore bear less fruit.
- The cup should be leaf-shaped with many inlets and outlets Boost exposure and make better apply of lithe. We will also remove branches with very edged angles.
- To maintain the proportion of leaves to wood, you should not gaunt out the twigs excessively. We will therefore avoid excess wood, which limits regeneration and the formation of productive branches.
Rejuvenation pruning
Rejuvenation pruning, also called renewal pruning, is carried out on trees showing signs of aging after a long period of production (20 to 40 years). These symptoms may be:
- smaller leaves
- yellowish color
- loss of leaves inside the tree
- low production
This is vigorous pruning that rejuvenates the walnut tree, although it can also be done gradually.
- Powerful rejuvenation pruning: In the first case, we remove all the leaves from the tree, effectively leaving the base and main branches of the trunk to regrow.
- Progressive rejuvenation pruning: It involves pruning from the top of the crown to the base of the branches. This is done in stages, every 3 years we cut out one of the four main branches of the tree.
Green trimming
In summer, you can perform renovation or green cutting. Although this can be done at any time of the year, it is usually done in behind schedule August when the walnuts are not very energetic due to the heat. This is done to control the growth of suckers or suckers, removing those that are not accessible to the nut trees.
What happens to the pruning residue
Once we have finished pruning and not done all the work, we still need to remove the leftover branches. But how to treat them? …well, we have a few options:
- Utilize a tree shredder. This type of machine makes our lives easier and is also ideal for enriching the soil with organic matter, because the shredded material can be spread over the field. Today, a home chipper is available in every pocket on the market.
- burn the branches. To do this, we need to apply for permission from the town hall where the walnut plantation is located. On some days fires are not allowed, so we had to find out in advance and ask for the appropriate permits.
- For the production of firewood for stoves, ovens, fireplaces, etc. To do this, you need to prepare the remains of branches and trunks, chop them and cut them into diminutive pieces, remove the leaves and sprinkle the crops with them. For example, this wood can also be sold to businesses that need a wood-burning oven, such as bakeries, pizzerias, etc.
I hope this information will assist you learn more about how to prune a walnut tree and what to consider when doing so.