Pruning Almonds Is Essential for Strong Trees and Stunning Blooms – and It All Starts From the Moment You Plant It

Pruning almond trees is a key part of maintenance that encourages a strong structure, keeps trees healthy, and helps them produce fruits, those which contain the tasty nuts. It does, however, have a reputation for being tricky. But it doesn’t need to strike fear, so we look at how to prune almond trees to show how simple it can be.

It is vital to know when and how to prune almond trees to prevent doing anything that risks their long-term health. The key takeaways are to trim in late winter or early spring, and to prune throughout the tree’s life, starting right after planting.

Here we look at how to prune almond trees of all ages, whether you have recently planted one or have well-established almond trees growing on your property. It includes easy trimming tips from experienced gardeners so you can confidently know which branches to prune and how.

How and When to Prune Almond Trees

Before doing any almond pruning, you must clean and sharpen any pruning tools.

This ensures you make clean pruning cuts and prevents the transmission of any diseases or bacteria around the garden.

You can sharpen many tools with a simple pocket-sized sharpener, like this garden tool sharpener available from Amazon, which you can keep in the shed or take out with you when doing any pruning. And gardening tools can be kept clean by using rubbing alcohol or diluted bleach.

When to Prune Almond Trees

Pruning trees at the right time is pivotal to their remaining healthy for many years to come, so avoid making any tree pruning mistakes and only head out with the tools at the appropriate time for any tree.

It is especially important with somewhat sensitive trees, such as almonds.

When it comes to almond pruning, they should be pruned in very late winter or early spring, during the tree’s dormancy. Pruning during dormancy encourages vigorous growth in the spring, once the new season begins.

As almond trees are susceptible to silver leaf, a fungus that infects wood and primarily gets in via pruning wounds, early spring pruning reduces the risk of infection, as silver leaf spores are most active in fall and winter.

That covers the right time, but when should you avoid pruning trees? Firstly, almond trees bleed sap when actively growing, so pruning too late in the spring causes bleeding that leaves them susceptible to pests and diseases.

And you shouldn’t prune almond trees in the fall. As this would encourage the tree to produce fresh growth that will not have time to harden off, and will be damaged by winter frosts.

How to Prune Almond Trees

To ensure a healthy, strong tree, a beautiful display, and a good yield, almond trees require pruning from a young age to establish a strong structural shape.

The trees don’t always need major pruning, but you do need to establish a framework early on, and giving trees some ongoing trimming helps stimulate new growth and maintain the form.

Not trimming at all would be a pruning mistake and leave you with an unhealthy, unproductive almond tree at an increased risk of splitting.

Pruning Young Almond Trees

Almond trees are usually grown in an open vase shape. This is because it is a perfect shape for strong limbs. It also allows light and air into the center of the tree, which is vital for preventing disease and producing nuts.

Lotte Berendsen, a plant expert at PlantIn, the leading plant care and identification app in the US, suggests the best course of action is to ‘start pruning right after planting’ an almond tree in your yard.

‘The goal is to encourage the growth of 3-5 main branches, so the tree can put all of its energy into creating a strong base,’ says the experienced horticulturist.

‘Simply choose 3-5 branches as your tree’s main structure. Remove any smaller and weaker branches that grow around these main branches as they appear. Continue to do this for the first 2-5 years of your tree’s life.’

The main 3-5 scaffold branches you select must be healthy, evenly spaced around the trunk, and angle away from the trunk at between 45 and 60 degrees. These will remain untouched over the early years and form the strong framework of the almond tree.

Remove all other branches with a pair of pruning shears or loppers, depending on the size. Larger branches, up to 1.5 inches in diameter, will require using bypass loppers, like these at Garden Goods Direct.

In the second year, some new growth from these primary arms can be left to form more of the tree’s secondary structure, but these also need to be healthy and well-spaced. As Lotte recommended, smaller and weaker branches from these arms are best removed.

Over these early years, vigorous or congested shoots in the center of the tree, such as those that grow upwards, also need to be removed to keep the tree open. Too many shoots will prevent air and light from penetrating the canopy.

It is also important to remove any damaged, diseased, or dead branches, and to keep the trunk clear of stems below the lowest of the initial scaffold branches.

Lotte Berendsen

Lotte is a gardening enthusiast, writer, and plant expert at PlantIn, where she provides customers with detailed care and treatment plans.

Pruning Mature Almond Trees

Once the tree is mature and the structure is well-established, the focus of almond pruning is to keep the tree healthy and productive, guaranteeing you a good harvest of almonds.

It starts, as with doing any tree or shrub pruning, with removing the three D’s: dead, damaged, and diseased branches. These can be trimmed with sharp pruning shears, loppers, or a pruning saw (like this folding pruning saw at Amazon) if they are larger than two inches in diameter.

Lotte Berendsen also claims you should add poor-growing branches to that hit-list, as she says: ‘This helps to prevent the spread of diseases and prevent the decaying branches from using resources, so your tree can put all of its energy into new growth instead.’

I also recommend looking out for crossing branches and any growing in the wrong direction. Branches that cross can rub and create entry points for disease, while branches growing towards the trunk block air and light from penetrating the canopy, and both are best removed.

‘For older trees that have lived more than ten years, heading cuts can be used to encourage new buds to form,’ adds Lotte. Heading cuts are those that remove parts of an existing branch. They are different from thinning cuts, where the branch is cut all the way back to where it meets another limb or the trunk.

To do these heading cuts, Lotte recommends: ‘Cut the main branches back about a third of their total size to encourage new shoots and rejuvenate the tree canopy.’

This trimming encourages the growth of new wood that will carry buds for blooms and fruits. For a productive tree, the key is balancing older wood and newer shoots in this way. These types of trimming cuts can rejuvenate unproductive branches by encouraging new growth.

However, don’t get too carried away each year, as almond trees don’t respond well to heavy pruning. You often hear about the one-third pruning rule of trees and shrubs as a maximum to remove, but almond trees need a lighter touch than this. Aim to remove 10-20% of the canopy in a year, and no more.

Finally, remember to remove any water sprouts that appear, which are vigorous, upright shoots that develop on older branches and rob essential plant nutrients from other branches.

Almonds also produce suckers at the base, which also need removing to stop them from stealing energy from the rest of the tree. A sharp pair of pruning shears, like these professional Felco F2 pruners at Amazon, is perfect for removing smaller stems from the trees.

Almond trees can grow up to 20 feet tall, depending on the variety, but can be kept more compact by growing them in containers. This allows gardeners with smaller spaces, like a small yard, courtyard garden, or deck, to enjoy the fragrant flowers and edible nuts.

If you do want to grow almond trees in pots, pick a smaller type, such as the ‘All-In-One’ variety. You can get a live ‘All-In-One’ almond tree at Amazon.

Plant your almond into a large container, at least 20 inches in diameter, and place it in a sunny spot in your yard. Use a good potting soil and ensure to water the tree regularly to keep the soil moist, as well as fertilize the tree each spring.