Prune Lemon Trees: [Importance, Time, Considerations and Steps]

Having a lemon tree in the home garden is something of great value because we will enjoy its useful fruit every year in its season.

Like any tree, it needs very specific care to ensure that it is always in the best conditions.

Pruning is one of them and the good news is that applying it will not take so much time or effort if you follow the instructions that we will give you below.

Why prune lemon trees?

Pruning lemon trees will yield a series of direct advantages for their good health. Among these we have:

1. It facilitates air circulation throughout the structure, thus helping to prevent diseases from developing.
2. It improves the structure of the plant, as it will be noticed neat and clean.
3. It helps the production of lemons to be more numerous in the next cycle.
4. It stimulates light to penetrate to the lowest parts and thus new branches develop.
5. It allows the new branches to establish themselves with a harder and more resistant wood.
6. Reduce the presence of damaged parts that cause a negative impact on the health and visualization of the tree.[/su_box]

When is it better to carry out the pruning of lemon trees?

The pruning of the lemon trees will be carried out after its fruit production cycle has ended. That is, between late summer and early fall. This reference is for trees that are already developed.

In the case of the youngest, pruning can be applied at any time, except in the presence of frost or when there is a risk of frost. The reason is that being a tree in full development, it is necessary to help it at a structural level, avoiding messy ramifications.

What tools should we use to prune lemon trees?

Lemon trees have different thicknesses in their branches, so it will be necessary to use various tools to proceed with the cuts.In the case of the thinner ones, anvil-shaped scissors will be appropriate, while the thicker ones will have to be worked with a saw .

Everything must be perfectly clean and disinfected before proceeding with pruning because lemon trees are prone to attack by some diseases.This means that you have to be very careful with the formation of wounds.

What should we take into account when pruning lemon trees?

A primary visualization of the tree will help to better plan the pruning because you will be focused and you will not lose time.Identify dry branches, those that are deformed, those that brush the ground, etc.Checking the general characteristics of the tree will help define how deep the pruning should be.

1. For strong trees with good characteristics, pruning will have to be simple and superficial.
2. For weak trees, the pruning will have to be deeper to help it emit new shoots and better conditions.

Have an area in which to group the remains that are generated so that it becomes easier for you to dispose of them later.

How to prune lemon trees without damaging the tree?

For the pruning of a lemon tree to be positive, the step-by-step to follow is summarized below:

1. Remove all the branches that you have previously identified that are dry . The best strategy is to start with them because they will make it easier for you to see the rest of the tree.
2. Cut the branches that are very close to the ground and that when producing lemons can cause them to collide with the ground and be damaged. A similar case will apply to those branches that look deformed or that get entangled with each other.
3. Extract the suckers and new shoots that come from the tree because they will only be dedicated to consuming energy and nutrients and their chances of developing a good amount of fruit is minimal.
4. Structure the rest of the plant by selecting three main branches that will be the strongest from the trunk. Then, the secondary branches that come out of these trim them a little until they reach about 20 centimeters, approximately.

As we have said before, this is a pruning that will apply only in cases of adult trees. That is, those who already exceed 3 years of life.

There is no need to worry that the tree will end up with a small and light crown because it will soon be very leafy again.

Now, after pruning, the lemon tree will spend a few days recovering and then it will emit its first bloom.If we want a large number of fruits, these flowers must be eliminated to motivate the lemon tree to emit a new one with better characteristics.

At the end of winter, it is a good plan to apply a light pruning to eliminate parts that are in poor condition, but without exaggerating.That is, those that have emerged after the summer pruning and that do not have the most optimal conditions.