I have started a fruit tree orchard in my back yard in the southern Hill County near San Antonio. Due to fighting off deer for 2 years they never really grew much but we now but up an 8 ft. fence which keep them out and they are growing nicely including peaches, plums, apples, nectarines, even a cherry tree. I just have a question and don't know what to do. As they grow they have so much foilage growing from the bottom and from the low tree trunk. I don't know if I should keep cutting them as they come up or just leave the branches there until winter when the tree is dormate and I prune it. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks,

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Olivia M. Clements

I went to a tree seminar a couple of years ago and one of Howard's mentors was there to speak about trees. His latest research showed that the leaves at the bottom of all trees provide more energy to the roots than any others.
I let everthing grow wild until it is established and then I start pruning over the course of a couple of winters.
Tony M

Thanks for your help, I will let them grow wild then and trim them down in Wnter,

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Olivia M. Clements

Good info there.

Only thing I cut from the apple trees we have during the rest of the year (read: non-pruning time) is any sickers that come straight up out of the ground away from the trunk.

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Shepherd of the Trees
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.