The walnut reacts very sensitively to cutting measures. It is therefore extremely important to choose the right time for this. Find out in this guide which season is the best time to prune your tree!
A walnut tree does not need pruning at all
Important preliminary remarks
Walnuts bleed much more than other fruit trees due to their insanely powerful, massive outward-pressing roots.
When cutting, the tree sap (blood) escapes. Timing can significantly reduce the amount of juice loss - and that's what matters. Otherwise, considerable damage to the fine line system in the tree can quickly occur.
Wrong vs. right time
Wrong times are late autumn, winter and spring, because:
At cool temperatures (frost), the tree sap freezes in the cuts. The tissue then tears. In addition, plant fungi and pests find optimal conditions due to the increased humidity.
Late summer as the perfect season
In late summer, the conditions are ideal for making a corrective cut. At this time of year, the walnut does not sprout, which is associated with a comparatively weak juice pressure.
In addition, the walnut is not yet preparing for the winter at this point, which has the same effect (reduced sap flow).
In short, you should only prune your walnut tree between mid-August and late September. Don't start later. All work must be completed by the beginning of October. For what reason? Otherwise the tree will not have enough time until winter to recover from this intervention and to close the wounds.
Important: Choose a dry day that is as sunny and warm as possible to attack your walnut tree.
Extra: when to carry out planting or training pruning?
Everything described so far applies mainly to the correction cut. In addition, however, there is also planting and training pruning.
The best time for these two measures is in summer, between mid-June and mid-July to be precise, i.e. after the leaves have successfully sprout.
Overview of the sensible times for cutting
In summary, here is an overview of the times to be selected for the various cutting measures:
- Correction cut: late summer, mid-August to late September
- Plant pruning: after the leaves have sprout, mid-June to mid-July
- Pruning for training: after the leaves have sprout, mid-June to mid-July