Early March is a good time for pruning fruit trees

I find that fruits and vegetables grown at home taste particularly good. Prune fruit trees in our area between late February and early March before the buds begin to swell. The branching habits are easy to see, and the weather is generally more conducive to outdoor work.

Avoid working in the rain or walking over the root zone of a tree when the soil is soft and wet.

Disinfect your tools with a disinfectant like Lysol after completing each tree and after each pruning cut if there are diseased branches.

A general goal of pruning a fruit tree is to thin the canopy of the tree to increase sunlight and improve air circulation. This in turn will increase fruit production and help reduce disease.

First, remove all dead or diseased branches. These will be easy to spot, since diseased wood is generally darker than healthy wood. Next, thin the canopy by focusing on pruning out branches that grow toward the center of the tree rather than out away from the center.

When possible, prune out branches that have narrow, V-shaped crotch angles as they are more susceptible to breaking under pressure than a wider, U-shaped crotch angle. The angle formed by a V-shaped crotch is less than 30 degrees. Prune out all suckers that arise from the ground next to the main trunk or grow vertically from lateral branches. Try to encourage the growth of lateral, fruit-producing branches and discourage upright vertical growth that produces little fruit.

Finally, prune out branches that rub against each other or are growing over a walkway, driveway, or doorway.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.