Atemoya pruning advice

[spaugh]

Should I prune it or just let it go like this?  I really dont care if it gets really large.  It set fruit on its own (no need to reach flowers) and I have a fruit picker pole.  What do you think?  Im thinking just get it up off the ground more than mess with the top. 

[luak]

I would clean the bottom branches first, fruits will be laying on the ground. Looking at your tree tells me you got good soil, so you can prune the top also. I would suggest about in half.

[Tony714]

I try to keep it as a backyard grower for easy harvest  and maintain.  Also keep strong branches.
Here are my tree this year growth over wall and just pruned it over a month ago.

Before grow over wall






After

[spaugh]

Tony, it looks like cherimoya.  My cherimoyas I am pruning to keep low for pollination.

[JF]

Brad
I would wait until March to prune but I would prune hard then to about 5’ this will induces tons of flowers and make it easy to pollinate.

[behlgarden]

I would sort out how many branches you got that are within 1 feet of trunk length, clear out all branches that are lower than 12-18 inches, have first spread above ground 12-18 inches max with 3 to 4 equally spaced branches all around, then those branches cut them at 12" - 18" length and expose leaf nodes at the ends no more than 3 nodes. you will start to get a nice low canopy. Most my cherimoya form and produce fruit under 6 feet, rest is all junk growth.

[spaugh]

I would sort out how many branches you got that are within 1 feet of trunk length, clear out all branches that are lower than 12-18 inches, have first spread above ground 12-18 inches max with 3 to 4 equally spaced branches all around, then those branches cut them at 12" - 18" length and expose leaf nodes at the ends no more than 3 nodes. you will start to get a nice low canopy. Most my cherimoya form and produce fruit under 6 feet, rest is all junk growth.

Nice description behl.  Its holding half a dozen fruit so I will clear the low growth now and then thin down to 4 main branches next spring.