Tips for pruning your lemon trees | Gardening Australia

If your lemon tree is looking ungainly, it might be time to grab your pruning tools!

Where to start.

Always take out the dead, diseased or crossing branches. Worn away bark can be a good indication that branches are crossing and rubbing.

Pruning for harvesting.

Leggy shoots at the top will make fruit too hard to harvest, so remove any high branches that will bear fruit that will be difficult to pick.

Pruning to prevent disease.

Clear out the centre of the tree for air circulation, leading to less fungal diseases.

Jane’s advice: Never be afraid of pruning. Pruning helps to keep trees in good condition, disease free and can help to make harvesting a lot easier.

Featured Plant.

LEMON

Citrus limon cv.


About Gardening Australia:
Gardening Australia is an ABC TV program providing gardening know-how and inspiration. Presented by Australia's leading horticultural experts, Gardening Australia is a valuable resource to all gardeners through the television program, the magazine, books, DVDs and extensive online content.

Connect with other Gardening Australia fans:

This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel.
********

[JoyK]

I remember my mother-in-law, when asked.... 'how do you get your garden to look so good?' She answered in her heavy Euro accent, "I just chip, chip, chip" ( wielding a small hatchet and mimicking the actions) 😮😲 Nothing was spared, from dahlias to fruit trees, but it made a world of difference. 😂😁👍

[martysgarden]

Nice quick tips there, getting those centre branches out makes a big difference. 😀

[wes]

Im a pro citrus pruner. I would recommend taking whole branches altogether, rather than shortening branches as we saw here….there is a time and place for it but not in the cuts i saw here, also, familiarise yourself with where the graft is and be sure to never allow anything to grow beneath that point, especially on younger trees

[ErgonBill]

See Jane prune. Jane prunes lemons sensibly. Be like Jane 😃.

[wildchook]

You go, Jane, a nice and simple prune. Ta.

[TheYoghurt]

My citrus trees have suffered terribly from lead miner damage. I've ended up cutting off almost all of the growth they made in the past year because it was so ugly

[LostWhits]

The vid I just saw from Kosta. He cut the thing back to a bare skeleton.

[davidtse]

Is June or July a good time to prune in Melbourne?