Hello all,

I've finally got my winter protection project started to wrap my first year orchard trees with white cloth tree wrap (hope to help with sunscald)and with a a two foot high ~8 inch diameter hardware cloth fence to keep rabbits away. The trees are already fenced with a 6 foot diameter 6 foot high cage for deer protection.

Anyway, as I got started with the process of putting the hardware cloth cages around the trees I found that a number of low branches are in the way. Everything I have read says it is best to prune in March or early April but was wondering if it would cause any problems if I pruned them off now. It would certainly make putting the hardware cloth cages around the trees easier.

Any other thoughts on my winter protection would be appreciated! I'd rather do more than necessary than not enough.

Thanks!