I’ve just been in the garden putting Annette’s teaching into practice and it works! Walk around with secateurs and trim often and keep the compost heaps coming.

Annette addressed a large audience at the Arana Library and asked:
Q. How do you know when to prune?
A. That’s what a gardener knows (ie. we learn!)

Q. Why do we prune?
[ul]It’s getting too big (Would be good to ask if that is an appropriate plant for that spot? Do I take it out altogether?
Shaping spindly plants
rejuvenation of old plants (wish we could prune ourselves & rejuvenate!)
promote flowering (lots of plants flower on new wood)[/ul]

Pruning often weakens the structural integrity. Epicormic growth from pruned cuts don’t join well.

The first 20 years you plant. The next 20 years you take out!

Some of the best gardeners wander around with secateurs in their back pockets and get them out to snip things to keep the garden neat and tidy (rather than doing a “big prune”). Little and often.

Pruning fruiting plants:
[ul]encourages flowering and fruiting
manages diseases(dead wood harbours disease – prune it out)
formative pruning in first 12-18 months determines shape
[/ul]

Tools and equipment
[ul]secateurs (cooking oil them often)
Loppers
Pruning saw
Hedge trimmers
Pole pruners (can also be used for high fruit picking)[/ul]

Q. Do you disinfect secateurs?
A. Not as often as I should.

Oil them with CRC metho or kitchen oil.

You usually get what you pay for. As you get older tend to go for smaller as your hands get weaker.

Rule 1: Know when to stop.
Rule 2: You can prune anything by one third at a time as long as you don’t cut into wood where there’s no leaves remaining.

Q. When do we prune? Timing.

Q. When does a plant flower?
[ul]Plants that flower (repeat flower) continuously can be pruned at any time (summer autumn early winter) – For example roses. Take off dead roses and dead wood fertilise. Just give them a trim.

Plants that only flower once a year: Prune as soon as it finishes flowering to give time for growth to mature after pruning[/ul]

Q. Do flowers/ fruit grow on mature or new wood?
You need to watch your plants and get to know the answers to this for a particular species.

Don’t stomp plants in when you plant them.

Trace elements are particularly important to get plants flowering.

Follow pruning with water and fertiliser: you are asking the plant to grow.

Hedges: prune sloping slightly in at the top (trapezium) so the sides get sun right down to the ground. Avoid pruning in at the bottom which will shade it and tend to leave bare of leaves.

With new plantings cut the flowers off.

Flowering annuals: don’t even leave one flower on when you plant them out. Continue pinching out the flowers until the plant gets to the size you want. If you want flowers to come on a particular date time pruning 3 weeks before.

A plant that has a growing tip left to grow will develop apical dominance. Pinching out the tip will let other shoots grow. Look for new shoot buds just above where leaves join the stem.

If you want plants to grow tall don’t pinch out the apical tip. Pinch out the lateral buds. Good to do with tomatoes growing up a stake.

You can do the same to get one large flower or fruit (the biggest pumpkin!). Prune off all the other flowers/fruit before they get a chance to take nutrients.

With fruit trees think from the start: Q. What sort of shape do I want?

Mango: Branch fairly low down. Limbs not actually on the ground.

Try not to have limbs/ splitting trunk as a tight V. Better to be open bowl shape.

With new fruit trees cut off flowers and fruit when you buy them before planting.

Always clip fruit from the tree. Prune it out and it’s stalk. It get rid of the twiggy bits that harbour disease.

Oil-based or copper-based sprays to clean up residual diseases.

Some fruit fruits on long-lived fruiting spurs on the same spurs year in year out. Ex. Tropical apples.

Citrus fruits on new growth.
Apples and pears fruit on old wood (short stubby old bits)

Beware of fertilising when fruit are setting. The plant can drop all the fruit and go into growing leaves mode.

Observe the results and learn. Once yhou know a plant you are there!

The discussion and question time was finished up with a book signing of Annette’s books which were for sale and afternoon tea prepared by the Friend of the Library.