Citrus pruning

[redback]

I asked a friend did he know how to prune citrus trees. He said no, but he took out all the dead and diseased branches, all the crossing over branches and any branch that was growing in towards the trees center. That's how I do it too. These trees are fifteen years old and some have been pruned the way described above. It takes about two hours if you include taking all the prunings to the bonfire heap.

 

[Meadowlark]

I've grown citrus and I'd say your friend is right on the money, but I would add a couple of points: 1) always remove all suckers (shoots that grow from the rootstock below the graft union) and 2) never prune more than a third of a tree in one year.

 

[redback]

There are a lot of other rules - like maintain a seven-foot height. I'm always amused by pruning books that begin with the sentence - 'pruning is simple' - and then spend 300 pages explaining the variations.