Pruning Calendar
Pick a fruit and your hemisphere to get its typical pruning window.
Pruning windows
How the windows are set
Pome fruit (apple and pear) gets one structural, dormant-season prune, timed for late winter once the hardest freezes are behind you. Stone fruit follows the same dormant prune but adds a lighter, post-harvest summer prune, reflecting its greater sensitivity to canker infection through winter wounds. Fig is pruned a little earlier, in deep winter, since it tends to break dormancy sooner than the others.
For Southern Hemisphere gardens, every month in these windows is simply shifted by six months to land on the matching point in a reversed growing season.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why prune fruit trees while they're dormant?
Pruning during the dormant season — after the coldest weather has passed but before new growth starts — lets you see the tree's whole structure clearly without leaves in the way, and the tree isn't actively pushing sap through the cuts. It also means the wounds have the whole growing season ahead to callus over before the following winter.
Why do some fruits get a second, summer prune?
Stone fruit (peach, plum, cherry) is more prone to fungal cankers entering fresh pruning wounds during cold, wet weather than pome fruit is. Many growers add a light prune shortly after harvest, in warmer, drier weather, to remove unwanted growth without leaving a wound exposed through a whole winter.
How does the Southern Hemisphere adjustment work?
The underlying reasoning — prune dormant, before buds break — is the same everywhere; only the calendar months differ because the seasons are reversed. The tool shifts every month in a Northern Hemisphere window by six months to land on the equivalent point in a Southern Hemisphere growing season.
What if my tree hasn't gone fully dormant by the suggested window?
The date ranges here are typical for a temperate climate, but dormancy timing shifts with your local climate and that year's weather. Wait for visible signs — leaf drop and no active new growth — rather than pruning strictly by calendar date if your season is running early or late.
Educational tool only. These are typical calendar windows for a temperate climate — always adjust for your local frost dates and how your tree is actually behaving that season.