What is Pruning in plants? Why is it needed? - An essential gardening practice.

What is pruning?

Pruning is the practice of trimming of a plant/shrub/bush/tree by cutting the overgrown/extra/unwanted/dead branches or stems to ensure the proper growth of the plant.

Though many hobby growers do not get involved in regular pruning, it is as basic a need as watering and de-weeding in a garden.

Why is it needed?

Not all plant varieties need pruning. Those that do may need it for different purposes. a few examples:-

Some exceptional temperate fruit crops will never produce flowers and fruits unless pruned. Ex. Apple, peaches
Pruning is an essential and important horticultural practice to follow to get maximum yield from some crops by ensuring that more of the nutrients are used in improving yield, than growing foliage, for example, tomato.
Apart from the core purpose of making a tree/plant more productive and bear quality fruits, pruning also helps in increasing the longevity and keeping the plants/tree in manageable shape.
In ornamental plants, pruning gives a more aesthetic look to plants.

Is pruning a necessary operation? Ideally - Yes, it is.

Advantages of pruning

It keeps the plant healthy.
It allows maximum sunlight and air movement for the plant.
It helps in getting larger sized fruit.

Types of pruning

There are two different ways of carrying out pruning, both serving different objectives.

Pruning techniques vary with the type of plant, weather, and the agronomic practices adopted by the gardener to grow them. Pruning requires a lot of personal experience on the part of the pruner. The type and severity of the pruning to be performed in commercial orchards can only be judged by skilled labor as severe or wrong pruning of branches leads to less yield and dwarfing of the plant.

The minimum common practice for pruning irrespective of various persons and conditions is the removal of dead, diseased, and dried branches.

Heading Back

In this method, a terminal part of the shoot is removed to a certain level. This helps in the development of secondary branches.

Thinning Out

In this method, specific branches are cut right from their base. The plant continues to grow vertically.

Pruning tools

Many fancy tools are available in the market for pruning. The essential ones are knives, shears, and saws. The most commonly used tool is the hand shear known as 'Secateur.' We must use sterilized pruning tools to avoid the spread of insects from one plant to another or from one orchard to another.

Points to remember while practicing pruning

Do not go for excessive pruning as it can lead to delayed fruiting and dwarfism in plants.
In pruning, the part which is not essential is the one that should be removed.
Pruning of young plants should be done with care as severe pruning leads to delayed fruiting.
One must exercise great caution as pruning in a more yielding area of the plant may result in the elimination of a larger yield area.

I hope this article was useful and helped you learn about pruning. In the follow-up article next week, we will cover how one should go about pruning in Tomato plants.

Happy Gardening!