Pruning

[shawnjames70]

Alot of growth this year and being in zone6 this leaves me with thoughts of where am i going to put all of my trees. So just curious when northern zones prune there trees if they have a ton of cuttings? Late fall or early spring? Storing cuttings till spring to root them could be an issue.

[Tom]

i take my cuttings in late November/early December....have not had any issues storing in refrigerator.

[Realtorbyday]

do you sterilize them or any of that?

[Tom]

I have not sterilized them in the past. When I store them they are 100% dry, any moisture can cause mold. Had two this year that must have had moisture in the bag and got some mold, I cleaned with diluted bleach water and put them back in refrigerator….they rooted fine. Mold was very mild and just starting. I do check the cuttings every few weeks.

[Vladimir]

I take cuttings in December

[Realtorbyday]

And do you sterilize the ones you store?

[Tom]

Challenge I find with pruning in spring is you risk the chance of breaking branches during storage. If you prune in fall I find it easier to store and stack the pots.

[Vladimir]

I store most of them for the winter, without disinfecting, in plastic bags in refrigerator. These are backups in case the mother trees do not survive. I discard them in the spring.
Some. I root in January.

[Miracle fruit]

I prune in January/February. The longer the future cuttings stay on the tree, the better rooting success later on.
If I decide to keep the cuttings then I wash, sterilize, and dry well before storage.

[ginamcd]

I prune once the tres are completely dormant, right before moving them into storage. Skinny and non-fully lignified wood is tossed immediately. The rest is cut up into cuttings which are scrubbed with dish soap, rinsed, soaked in a bleach solution for a few minutes, taken out (no rinsing) and left to fully dry. Ends are then dipped in melted wax, each cutting is individually wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, and they are placed into ziplock freezer bags which are stored in the crisper drawer set to low humidity.

I keep two of the best cuttings from each variety as in insurance incase I lose a tree over the winter. In the past most of the rest are gifted to those members who have the varieties on their wishlist either here on the forum or in their Figdatabase profile.

[shawnjames70]

Wow nice respone!! I never thought it would be so one sided.. will see how this goes with more comments

[TorontoJoe]

For the most part.... if I don't prune before they go into the garage for the winter, not way they'll all fit. Winter storage and space in the spring wake up greenhouse/tent are the bigger consideration.