The best time to summer prune your apple and pear tree is the second half of July through to the end of August. You cut the long, young shoots back to around 5 to 8 leaves from the base, take out the water shoots and let more light onto your fruit. Summer pruning slows the tree’s growth, costs you no harvest next year (unlike winter pruning) and the wounds heal faster because the tree is in full swing right now. In this article you’ll read exactly which trees to prune in summer, which to leave alone, how much to take off per type of tree, and how to avoid spreading disease.
Why summer prune? The difference with winter pruning
First the big picture, because it shapes everything that follows.
Prune in winter and the tree responds in spring with a rush of new shoots. That’s handy when you want to build up a young tree and gain more branches. But on a tree that’s already at size, it works against you: you get a forest of water shoots back and the tree puts its energy into leaves instead of fruit.
Summer pruning does the opposite. The tree is past its strong growth phase, so what you cut away now doesn’t come back in force. You slow the growth down instead of driving it on.
And there’s one more reason. In summer the tree’s sealing mechanism is running at full power. A pruning wound closes much faster now than in winter, which gives disease pathogens less chance to get in.
In short:
| Winter pruning | Summer pruning | |
|---|---|---|
| When | November to March (dormancy) | Second half of July to end of August |
| Effect on growth | Stimulates strong regrowth | Slows growth down |
| Water shoots | Come back in force | Stay away |
| Wound healing | Slow, tree dormant | Fast, tree active |
| Effect on harvest | Can come at the cost of fruiting | Costs no fruiting, better ripening |
| Mainly for | Shaping young trees | Maintenance, light and fruit quality |
Which fruit trees do you prune in summer?
This is the most important question, because it’s where things often go wrong. Not every tree wants to go under the blade in summer, and some trees you actively never want to touch in winter.
Pome fruit: apple, pear, quince, medlar
The main prune on apple and pear is done in winter. In summer you give a light maintenance round: water shoots out, over-long shoots back, light onto the fruit. Think of it as a trim, not a big intervention.
Stone fruit: cherry, plum, peach, apricot, nectarine
These trees you prune only during the growing season, roughly from July to September and ideally soon after harvest. Never in winter.
The reason is a medical one: with winter pruning the risk of infection from silver leaf (a fungus) and bacterial canker is considerably higher. In summer the tree seals its wounds fast and those diseases stay out. Cherry is best pruned right after picking, somewhere between June and mid-August.
Espaliers, fans and cordons
Anything grown in a strict shape needs keeping in check in summer, up to around mid-August. Skip it and the shape grows out of hand. A handy side effect: this annual summer prune means espaliers barely put on late growth and stay compact.
Here’s the overview. Have a quick look at which ones you’ve got in the garden.
| Type of tree | Category | Summer prune (Jul–Aug)? | Winter prune? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple, pear | Pome fruit | Yes, light maintenance | Yes, main prune |
| Quince, medlar | Pome fruit | Light | Yes |
| Cherry | Stone fruit | Yes, right after harvest | No |
| Plum | Stone fruit | Yes, after harvest | No |
| Peach, nectarine, apricot | Stone fruit | Yes | No |
| Espalier, fan, cordon | Trained tree | Yes, until mid-August | Additional |
| Walnut | Nut | June–September | No (bleeds) |
What are water shoots and do you need to remove them?
Water shoots are those long, poker-straight shoots that fire up like skewers out of the main branches or the trunk. Reddish-brown in colour, often with white spots, and they grow suspiciously fast.
The annoying part: they carry no blossom and no fruit. They only cost the tree energy and close up the crown. Exactly the light your fruit needs to ripen gets caught by these shoots.
So yes, in summer you remove water shoots. And the beauty of it: do this now and they won’t come back, because the growth drive is out of them. Do it in winter and they’ll fire back twice as hard next spring.
One nuance. Is a shoot sitting exactly where you actually want new fruiting wood? Then in early June you can cut it back by three quarters instead of removing it. The tree often turns it into fruiting wood. But most shoots can simply go.
How much can you cut off? The numbers per tree
This is where most gardening sites stay vague. One says “to 3 leaves”, another “to 8”. Here’s the practical translation, so you don’t have to guess.
The broad rule: cut young, fast-growing shoots back to around 5 to 8 leaves from the base. Are you pruning a shoot you already cut back last year? Then you can go shorter, to 1 leaf. Side shoots you can bring back to 2 or 3 buds from the base.
And the limit for the whole tree: don’t take off more than 20 to 30 percent of the crown per year. If you want to rejuvenate a tree hard, spread it over two years. Cutting away too much at once actually triggers rampant growth again, exactly what you don’t want.
| What | How far back |
|---|---|
| Young, long shoot (18–23 cm) | To 5–8 leaves from the base |
| Shoot you already cut back before | To 1 leaf |
| Side shoot | To 2–3 buds |
| Fruiting spurs, spacing | About 10 cm apart |
| Maximum per year (whole crown) | No more than 20–30% |
Two types have their own rule. Plum you thin to around 5 cm fruit spacing, otherwise the branches snap under the weight. On cherry you leave a stub of about 2 cm rather than cutting flush against the branch, which prevents gumming (weeping resin).
Watch out with tip-bearing apple varieties
One pitfall you’ll read nowhere, but which makes the difference between apples and no apples. Some apple varieties carry their fruit at the tips of the shoots (tip-bearers, such as Discovery), others on short fruiting spurs along the branch (spur-bearers).
Cut back all the shoot tips on a tip-bearer without thinking and you prune away next year’s harvest. Don’t know which variety you have? Look at where the fruit sits this year. If it’s mostly at the ends, go easy on shortening the shoot tips.
Summer pruning in 6 steps
Here’s how to tackle it on a dry day in the second half of July or in August.
- Get clean, sharp tools. A sharp pair of bypass secateurs (which slice, don’t crush), a pruning saw for thicker branches. No anvil or ratchet cutters: they squash the stem and leave an ugly wound.
- Take out the dead and diseased wood first. Anything withered, broken or affected comes out first. That way you see straight away what you’re working with.
- Remove the water shoots. Cut them flush against the branch (except the single one you want to keep as fruiting wood, which you cut back in early June).
- Cut the over-long shoots back. Follow the numbers from the table above. Work calmly, step back regularly and look at the whole.
- Make light and air. Take out branches that grow inward or rub against each other. The aim: sunlight has to reach the fruit everywhere, and the wind has to move through the crown. That saves you fungal trouble.
- Clear away the prunings. Affected wood in particular doesn’t belong on the compost heap near your trees, because it’s a source of disease for next year.
Do you need to seal pruning wounds?
No. And this is exactly the kind of point most gardening articles stay quiet about, even though it’s a fair question.
On fruit trees, wound sealant (that black balm) is now advised against. Under a layer like that, moisture stays trapped and fungi actually get more of a chance, while the tree seals its own wound perfectly well. Especially in summer, when the sealing mechanism is running flat out, a clean pruning wound heals fastest on its own.
The one real tip: prune on a dry day, ideally overcast, so the wound can dry off quietly. Make sure your cut is smooth and not ragged. That does more for the health of your tree than any pot of balm.
What weather? Don’t prune in the heat
Timing within that summer window matters.
Pick a dry day, ideally overcast. In dry weather the wounds dry off nicely. In wet, warm weather bacteria and fungi get exactly the chance to creep into fresh wounds.
Don’t prune during a heatwave. Above about 28 to 30 degrees, in the fierce midday sun or during prolonged drought, the tree is under stress. Pruning adds stress to that. Wait a few days until the weather is calmer, or prune early in the morning.
Preventing disease: hygiene and the pitfalls
Your secateurs are a fine way to carry disease from one tree to the next. A few things to watch.
Fireblight (on pear and apple) spreads precisely in warm, humid weather. Cut during a spell like that and you’re giving the disease a hand. See affected branches (wilted, blackish-brown “burnt” shoots)? Then cut at least 30 cm below the affected part and disinfect your secateurs after every cut. This is exactly the reason to prune pear on a dry, not-too-warm day rather than in a muggy late-summer shower.
Silver leaf and bacterial canker are precisely why you don’t touch stone fruit in winter. Stick to the summer rule and you’re fine.
Peach leaf curl overwinters in the bud and strikes young leaves in spring. Prune peach only in summer and remove misshapen leaves in good time.
Disinfecting is done with 70% alcohol (methylated spirit) on a cloth or in a spray bottle. Don’t use chlorine or bleach: that leaves your secateurs rusting. A quick wipe between trees, and certainly after a diseased branch, is enough.
Common mistakes
These are the ones I see go wrong most often. Avoid them and your tree and your harvest are better for it.
- Pruning stone fruit in winter. Asking for silver leaf and canker. Summer only.
- Taking off too much at once. More than 30 percent of the crown and the tree bolts with water shoots.
- Cutting water shoots off in winter. They come back twice over. Do it in summer.
- Shortening all the shoot tips on tip-bearers without thinking. That’s where your harvest sits.
- Pruning in full heat or a heatwave. Stress on stress.
- Sealing wounds with balm. Traps moisture, invites fungus. Let the tree do it itself.
- Dirty tools. You spread disease from tree to tree. Disinfect with meths.
- A blunt or crushing pair of secateurs. Ragged wounds heal slowly. Sharp and bypass.
Aftercare once you’ve pruned
After the prune your tree is busy recovering for a while. A few things help.
If it stays dry, give the tree water, certainly when it’s hanging full of fruit. A layer of mulch (wood chips, mown grass or compost) around the trunk holds moisture and keeps weeds down. Do keep the mulch a hand’s width off the trunk, to guard against rot.
And in the weeks after, have another look for new water shoots or diseased patches coming up. Dealing with it early is less work than a heavy-handed fix later.
Fruit trees in a pot or dwarf form
Have a dwarf or patio tree in a pot? Then the same summer rule applies, but keep it small: a pot tree grows more slowly and only needs a few targeted cuts. Water shoots out, over-long shoots back, and make sure the light reaches the fruit. On top of that, a pot tree is more sensitive to drought, so watering after the prune is extra important here.
Frequently asked questions
When is the best time to summer prune my apple and pear tree?
The second half of July through to the end of August is the ideal moment. The tree is past its strongest growth by then, so what you cut away doesn’t come back in force. Pick a dry, not-too-hot day. For espaliers the rule is: at the latest by around mid-August, otherwise the shape grows out of hand.
Can I prune cherries and plums in summer too?
Yes, and it’s actually the only good time. Stone fruit like cherry, plum, peach and apricot you prune only during the growing season, ideally soon after harvest. In winter the risk of silver leaf and bacterial canker is much greater. Prune cherry right after picking and leave a small stub to prevent gumming.
Do I need to remove all the water shoots?
Virtually all of them, yes. Water shoots carry no fruit and only cost energy. Removed in summer, they won’t come back. If one sits exactly where you want new fruiting wood, you can cut that one back by three quarters in early June so the tree turns it into fruiting wood.
How much can I cut off at once?
No more than 20 to 30 percent of the crown per year. Take off more and the tree responds with a rush of new shoots, exactly what summer pruning is meant to prevent. If you want to rejuvenate hard, spread it over two seasons.
Does summer pruning cost me harvest?
No, and that’s exactly the advantage over winter pruning. Summer pruning doesn’t come at the cost of next year’s fruiting. In fact, more light onto the fruit means it ripens better and the buds for the coming season grow stronger. Only with tip-bearing apple varieties do you need to be careful about shortening the shoot tips.
Do I need to seal pruning wounds with wound balm?
No. On fruit trees, sealant is now advised against, because it traps moisture and gives fungi a chance. The tree seals its own wound perfectly well in summer. Make a smooth cut with sharp tools and prune on a dry day, then the wound heals fastest on its own.
How do I stop myself spreading disease with my secateurs?
Disinfect your secateurs with 70% alcohol (methylated spirit) on a cloth, certainly after cutting a diseased branch. Don’t use chlorine, that leaves your secateurs rusting. With fireblight you cut at least 30 cm below the affected part and disinfect after every cut. And in warm, humid weather it’s better not to prune at all, because that’s when bacteria spread fastest.
Get stuck in in the garden
Summer pruning is one of those jobs that costs little and gives a lot: healthier trees, better apples and pears, and a crown that doesn’t grow closed. A clean pair of secateurs, a dry day in July or August, and the numbers from this article in the back of your mind, that’s all you need.
Want more garden projects with a clear step-by-step approach and precise measurements? At Fred’s DIY Plans you’ll find worked-out build plans for your garden, so you can get going without any guesswork.
Happy pruning.
Fred