SO LONG, SUCKERS! REMOVING FRUIT TREE SPROUTS & SUCKERS
Have you noticed how every summer it seems like there are a lot of new little branches around the base of trees, covered in leaves, and obscuring the trunk of the tree?
Those are called suckers or watersprouts, and they’re especially common in trees that live in urban settings. Since trees in town often live in less than perfect conditions, they experience a lot more stress than trees in a rural forest. Trees send out suckers when they’re stressed to ensure their lineage will live on if the main tree dies, and they send up watersprouts if they are struggling to get enough water.
It’s important to remove suckers and sprouts, especially from fruit trees. You’ll hear that in tree care tips from every grower. But why should you do it? There are two main reasons.
1. Because suckers and watersprouts waste energy and use nutrients that the main tree needs to grow and produce fruit.
Suckers from the roots of a tree, or watersprouts, can appear after a tree has experienced drought conditions, or if it has undergone heavy pruning after not being pruned for many years. That’s why most pruning guidelines recommend never removing more than ⅓ of a tree’s branches at once. Suckers and watersprouts use up vital energy and nutrients that the main tree needs to stay healthy and produce fruit.
2. Because suckers from grafted fruit trees come from the grafted rootstock, so they won’t be the kind of fruit tree you’re trying to grow.
Most fruit trees you buy these days are grafted. This means that a portion of the fruit tree you want to grow has been grafted onto rootstock from a smaller, hardier, faster-growing, disease-resistant tree. Doing so helps fruit trees stay more compact, grow stronger, and produce fruit sooner while also being more resistant to pests and winterkill.
HOW DO YOU SAFELY REMOVE SUCKERS & WATERSPROUTS?
Suckers grow from the roots around the bottom of trees. Wherever possible, suckers should be removed completely every season. It’s easier to do when they’re smaller. When suckers are quite little, under a foot tall, you can likely pull them out by hand. This should also remove the growth nodes that produce suckers, so over the course of a few years, your tree should produce fewer suckers.
If you have larger suckers that have been allowed to grow for a few years, you may need to dig into the soil around the sucker to find the base of it and use a sharp pruner, saw, or hatchet to remove the sucker as close to its base as possible.
Watersprouts look similar to suckers, they’re usually thin branches with lots of leaves, but they usually grow from the trunk of the tree or from larger branches. Generally, watersprouts grow vertically, rather than growing out as branches do.
Watersprouts end up blocking light and cause crowding in the tree’s canopy, so fruit production and quality are reduced. They are also weaker than normal branches, so they have more potential to get injured, making the tree more susceptible to disease or pest infestation.
Like suckers, watersprouts should be removed as close to their base as possible so the tree can heal properly, and over time is less likely to produce more watersprouts. When watersprouts are small, you can snip them off easily with hand pruners or loppers. If they’ve been left for a few years and are quite large, you may need to use a saw to remove them. Make sure not to tear or break sprouts off as this makes it more difficult for the tree to heal.
If you need any tools, tips, or advice about how to identify and remove the suckers and sprouts from your trees, stop by the garden center. Our accredited Indiana Horticulturists can help you decide on the best course of action to keep your fruit trees healthy and happy.