When it comes to proper pruning, fruit trees have a few specific requirements that should be noted.
The biggest one being to remove any vertical growth and sprouts. This growth does not produce any fruit and only crowds out the horizontal growth, which is what you want to promote.
It is also important to regularly perform reduction pruning on the horizontal limbs. Once the tree starts bearing fruit it adds a significant amount of weight to the branches and this pruning helps to avoid breakage.
Additionally, the ideal time for fruit tree pruning is late winter to early spring.
