There’s one weekend left of winter, however the plants have already decided it’s spring so if you didn’t get around to pruning in the colder months, get out into the garden now.
In the same way a regular visit to the hairdresser helps our hair looking good, regular pruning in the garden helps keep your plants in shape and growing vibrantly throughout the seasons.
According to Fiskars, as most plants are either dormant or moving towards the end of their flowering season, late winter is the best time to plan a pruning session.
Pruning will either clean up leggy growth from last season or it can help plants to blossom in the warmer months to come.
The garden equipment company provided five reasons why you should snap up your shears and prune your plants this weekend.
1. Plants are dormant
Taking advantage of dormant plants with sparse foliage around the branch structure helps you see clearly where you’re cutting to avoid making mistakes. As an added bonus, sap is less active during the winter months - this means any cuts you make will be less likely to bleed. With spring on its way, it’s best to jump in now before the growing cycle begins!
2. Promotes health and removes diseases
Promoting the health of plants is especially important for fruit trees as it could affect the whole harvest. Diseases can spread to other parts of the plant rather rapidly, so removing these branches minimises the chance of infection and decreases the likelihood of transmitting diseases from one plant to another.
3. Produces more flowers or fruits
The best benefit of pruning is to encourage a faster and more abundant growth in spring. The late winter prune leaves plants with extra root and energy reserves, producing bigger fruit with a more stable level of harvesting instead of producing too much fruit that isn’t good enough to eat.
4. Alters and directs growth
Neglected plants often cannot flourish anymore than they already have. The younger the plant, the easier it is to train and influence the direction or shape of growth. With regular pruning, you will notice enhanced growth as well as an improved quality of foliage and stems.
5. Maintains safety
Low growing branches can become a major hazard. A pruning session gives you an opportunity to remove these branches before they become hazardous. Thinning out the canopy by removing broken, dead or crossing branches allows for more airflow and light penetration, eventually leading to a fuller looking tree once it's bursting with foliage again.
Details: fiskars.com.au
