How to prune Cordon Fruit Trees

05/02/2026

This is just about pruning cordons - there is a much longer piece on growing cordon fruit trees if you would like to know more.

Cordons should be pruned every year around mid-August (i.e. about now). Your cordon is ready for pruning when the new side shoots from the main stem(s) become woody at their base. Shorten all of this new growth from the main stem to 3 or 4 leaves above the basal cluster of leaves at the base of the shoot.

Where a shoot from the main stem has a side shoot coming off it, prune this also - to one leaf above the cluster of leaves at its base

Pruning of fruit trees is generally carried out in winter or early spring, except for the Prunus family (stone fruit: cherries, plums, damsons, gages, etc), which are pruned in summer. Cordons are different in that you restrict their growth by pruning now, and the ideal cordon is compact and covered in fruiting spurs (which this treatment encourages).

You can use this technique on any shape of fruit tree if you wish to restrict its size, but at the same time ensure it produces lots of fruit. The trick is to use a M9 semi-dwarfing or MM106 semi-vigorous rootstock.

We hope your plants have grown well this summer (certainly not much need to water!)

Watch your plants grow, and enjoy!

Comments (16)

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julian 15 years ago

Thanks very much for pointing it out. The Summer Pruning of Cordon Fruit Trees diagram is back in its rightful place.

Hope it helps.
Tim 15 years ago

Thanks, very useful, but the link to the diagram seems to have got broken – at any rate it’s not displaying for me.
julian 16 years ago

Hi Donald
No problem – just me being thick. I would cut your cordon fruit trees back (in terms of height) in winter. These will always try to regrow from the top and the advantage of winter pruning in this case is that you can see the dormant buds more clearly then and so it is easier to choose which one to cut back to.

As an aside, there is no horticultural need for cordoned fruit trees to be kept to the height of the top wire. They are all stout stemmed and can easily be allowed to grow up another 45 – 60 cms above the last support. The only restriction is how high you want to reach.

Hope this helps.
Donald 16 years ago

re: Pruning cordon apple trees
Hallo and thank you for your very useful reply. However I would still like to know what to do about the leading shoots on some of my cordon apple trees that appear to be reaching for the sky. Should I prune these back now or in the winter. It will mean taking quite a lot off to get them down to my top wire of about 5ft 6ins? Thanks for your help.
Regards
Donald
julian 16 years ago

Thanks for your enquiry

When cordon fruit trees are growing away well (and it sounds like at least some are) then you can summer prune in the year after planting. If some are taking longer to eastablish then skip summer pruning.

All cordon fruit trees should be winter pruned however (therefore an established cordon is pruned twice a year).

Summer pruning involves reducing side branches and sub-branches to 5 leaves and it is best done in August/September. The number of leaves is not critical, the principal reason for summer pruning of cordons being to reduce the amount of sap that is returned to the roots, thereby reducing their growing vigour.

Winter pruning is best done in January and involves shortening by a further 2 leaves (nodes in winter) leaving 3.

Hope this helps