Pruning Fruit Trees

October was a nice month of Indian Summer. With November came the first snow fall and currently it is cold. Before the first snows of November came, I pruned my fruit trees. The cherry and apple trees that were 25 feet tall were trimmed down to a height of 10 feet. In the spring, the trees will grow back with new vitality in the new shoots and the apples on the Macintosh tree will be even larger. If one does not prune the fruit trees, the increased foliage means most of the plants nutrients goes into maintaining the old vegetative growth. As the branches grow longer and higher there is a tendency for the branches to snap or cause the main trunk to crack with the excessive weight.  The root system has more energy to produce newer and more vigorous growth because the old growth has been eliminated.