Fifteen inches of snow and single digit temperatures have put our orchard pruning on hold. We have been making good progress on the annual tree pruning up to this point, probably about 60 percent finished.
My focus of this post is a mature, fruit bearing tree and not a newly planted one. Understanding a fruit tree’s anatomy is very useful for a person to know before making any pruning cuts. Fruit bud, leaf bud, spurs and sprouts are terms that are good to have knowledge about before making pruning cuts.
Fruit buds, also called flower buds, contain embryonic flower parts and are the reproductive part of the plant. Fruit buds usually flower, get pollinated and grow into apples. Most of an apple tree’s fruit bud growth occurs in May, June, July and August. This period of growth becomes the fruit bud for the following growth season. So, the fruit bud for our 2026 apple harvest was actually developed in the summer of 2025. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Fruit buds are generally fatter, rounder and fuzzier in appearance. They usually appear on older wood and these branches, or laterals, are horizontally on the tree and angle outward. Some fruit bud can be removed when pruning but care should be taken to leave enough fruiting buds unharmed as this is where your potential fruit crop will develop.
Leaf buds are sometimes referred to as “vegetative growth.” Leaf buds are smaller, narrower, pointed and lay flatter to the branch producing leaves and new shoots. First year vegetative growth with no fruit buds is called a water sprout. Vertical wood on an apple tree is more likely to develop leaf buds. Most of the vertical growth on a tree can be removed when pruning especially all water sprouts. Fruit trees can’t be treated as a shrub, shearing off only the tips. Tip pruning results in wild end growth or water sprouts.
Pruning is a continual learning process with no one really being an “expert.” Studying book illustrations will not teach as much as actually going into the orchard and pruning. Many home gardeners lack confidence when pruning their fruit trees and are afraid of making a mistake and so they do nothing – BIG mistake. Advantages of pruning far outweigh the disadvantages. Proper pruning methods make those big, beautiful apples we all look forward to enjoying at fall harvest.