I've read that it is a good idea to wait until the tree has stopped actively growing and has set the terminal buds so that any pruning won't encourage new grown that won't harden off before winter.

How can one determine when the terminal bud has formed and when the pruning off of the leaves will not deprive the ripening fruit of what they need. (mostly apples which ripen well into November and December in NY) .

Mike

Terminal bud has formed when the tree quits growing. The branches don't all stop at once, somewhat from the bottom up.

The second part is a lot more complicated. You might be able to prune off half the leaves now if the set is very light. With a heavy set maybe not until dormant.

Then there is the factor discussed recently. Once the lower leaves have been shaded long enough and past a certain degree, removing upper leaves may not restore photosynthetic ability to the once shaded leaves. Cutting off leaves now could be a double whammy, good leaves gone and others don't work.

I have some doubts about shading effects but can't argue with top professors in this area of fruit tree physiology.

As all of my trees are espalier so light exposure is not an issue. They are planted in a North South line so they are getting direct full day of sun ( both east and west sides of the trees).

Earlier in the year I removed some water shoots totally while leaving some 2-3 inch stubs evenly spread out on the horizontal branches. Leaving the stubs was with hope that they would develop fruiting spurs. These stubs have since added additional vegetative growth of more than 10 inches.

I was thinking that now may be too early to prune the additional growth until the tree stops growing.

I was just wondering if there was a sure fire way to identify when a tree actually would no longer push new growth.

Mike