How-to: training a dwarf tree into a pyramid

Maintaining a pyramid shape for your dwarf tree requires you to know a bit about how it grows and needs to be trimmed. With these handy tips, you'll be armed with your shears for when the seasons roll around.

1. Trees should be spaced one metre apart (three feet) in rows from two to three metres (six and a half to 10 feet) apart. Plant them between midfall and early spring.
2. If you begin with a one-year-old (maiden) tree, cut back the stem to about 50 centimetres (20 inches) above soil level immediately after planting.
3. Cut just above a bud or side shoot, and then rub out the bud or shoot that is second from the top; otherwise it may produce a second leading shoot.
4. Select three or four of the buds below the topmost bud to form the tree's first branches. Space them to grow out in different directions.
5. Rub out unwanted buds or shoots.

The topmost bud will grow upward to form the tree's central leader, and the next two buds should form strong branches, but the lowest buds will produce weak branches unless they are stimulated. They should be notched, you can remove a half-moon of bark from above each of these buds.

In the second winter cut back the central leader to about 45 centimetres (18 inches) from the first year's cut. To help produce a straight stem, make the cut just above a bud facing in the opposite direction from the bud chosen during the previous winter.

1. As in the previous winter, rub out the bud below the top one, and choose three or four buds below it that are well spaced for forming another tier of branches.
2. With a sharp knife carefully notch above the two lower buds as before.
3. Repeat this training each winter until the main stem has reached a height of about two metres (six and a half feet).
4. In the second winter only, cut back the leaders of the first tier of branches to a length of about 20 centimetres (eight inches) — above a bud on the underside of the limb.
5. After this, cut back branch leaders in summer only.

No pruning is needed in the summer after training a one-year-old tree. For older trees prune new growth as it matures, usually starting in mid-summer and continuing for perhaps a month.

1. Growth is mature when it's at least 20 centimetres (eight inches) long, woody at the base, and has dark green leaves. Cut back extension growth on branch leaders (but not the central leader) to five or six leaves beyond the basal cluster.
2. Cut above a bud on the underside of the limb.
3. Cut any of the mature laterals that are growing from the branches back to three leaves from the basal cluster. If there are any mature side shoots growing from laterals or spurs, cut them back to one leaf from the basal cluster.

Until the fourth summer remove new shoots growing from the main stem. If new growth is not mature enough for pruning in midsummer, it may be ready in late summer. If it is still not mature enough then — this may be the case in more northerly regions — wait until early fall.

If you have pruned in summer, you may find that secondary growth has sprung from the pruned shoots by fall. If it has been a rather dry summer and not much secondary growth has occurred, cut it all back to one bud from the parent stem during the fall.

After a wet summer that has produced a great amount of such growth, you may have to continue pruning into early winter in order to maintain the pyramidal shape of the tree.