Learning to hand-tailor your dwarf tree

Getting a dwarf tree to grow the way you'd like it isn't a hard task, but you need to be diligent in pruning back buds each year and directing branches the right way. Here's how to handle the first 3 years of life.

If you've planted a dwarf tree in your yard, here are some tips to take care of it so it thrives for years to come.

1. Plant dwarf trees two and a half to four and a half metres (eight to 15 feet) apart, depending on the rootstock (which should be either dwarfing or semi-dwarfing). Check the type and the planting distance with the nurseryperson or look in the catalogue.
2. If you buy a one-year-old tree, cut the stem back to a 45- to 60-centimetre (18- to 25-inch) height, just above a bud, after planting in fall or spring. The buds or small shoots just below the cut will grow out the following summer. There may be only four or five.
3. Choose three or four to form the first branches. They should be evenly spaced around the stem, with none pointing toward the supporting stake. Rub out with your thumb any unwanted buds or shoots.

In the winter a two-year-old dwarf tree will have the three or four branches that grew in the summer.

1. Cut back each of the branches to an outward-pointing bud; how far back you cut them depends on their vigour.
2. If the branches are thick and vigorous, cut them back by half. If they are thin and weak, cut them back by two-thirds.
3. Rub out with your thumb any inward-pointing buds just below the cuts.

By a tree's third winter a number of lateral shoots will have grown out from the branches. Choose some of these laterals to form, with the first branches, the main structure of the tree. They should all point outward, and their tips, after pruning, should be at least 45 centimetres (18 inches) apart.

1. Cut all main branches back to an outward-pointing bud, shortening the new growth on each branch by one-third if the branch is growing vigorously or by one-half if it is of average growth. If it is weak, shorten the new growth by two-thirds.
2. Each of the laterals not chosen to form main branches should be cut back to a point that is four buds from the base of the shoot.
3. Cut off remaining side branches on the main stem flush with the stem.

With these steps, you should have a beautiful, hand-tailored dwarf tree.