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« on: April 13, 2017, 10:45:58 AM »
Much of this depends entirely what you're aiming to do.
If you are attempting to container grow a fruit tree which normally gets very large in ground, it is a great idea to let it fruit early as possible--therefore stunting it's growth and allowing you to get fruits from a variety not normally grown in containers.
If you're growing in the ground and want to get a healthy size after a few years and a larger tree, then definitely do not let it fruit. How you prune it, or not prune it, depends entirely on what you're growing. A stone fruit needs some strong pruning care to promote its open canopy, but a citrus is closed canopy and unless space is an issue, you shouldn't prune anything but the Ds.
To set this example to a neighbor even on plants (who asked me earlier this year), I lined up a group peppers and tomatoes.
One control group of bell peppers was allowed to fruit as early as possible with natural form, and another control group of bell peppers (same variety germinated exact same time) had its flowers pinched and heads pruned to promote multi-branching until it was thick trunked, barky and over 30" high before being allowed to set flowers and then fruit.
Now, the early fruiters have an average of 3 fruit each. Their fruit is nearly ripened and large, but the plant is very short--under 20" tall and clearly putting all of its energy into the few fruit. They are averaging about 2 more flowers coming from the tops. So they might end up with 5 fruit in the short term, and not produce for awhile afterward.
The flower pinched pruned ones are now reaching over 40 inches tall, and have strong trunks which handle the high winds here without staking, and have more than 30 fruits each with more than 20 new flowers incoming. The harvest will be a couple of weeks later than the earlier setting plants, but more than 10x the harvest, with a much healthier, stronger and larger plant which holds its fruit even without staking. The root systems have developed incredibly and the plants respond much better to feeding and show very few signs of pest problems (just leaf miners on some older, lower leaves). Moreso, because the fruits are all in various stages with many more to come, there will be an ongoing staggered season of Bell Peppers from this group with fruits ripening at various intervals.
I can provide photos if interested.
The tomatoes did exactly the same thing, and even moreso, the early tomatoes are acting like determinate rather than indeterminate. The carefully pruned and flower pinched tomatoes are like miniature trees with trunk bases more than 2 thumbs thick and only 4 feet tall, and now super loaded with flowers and fruit.
Think of trees as a much longer term of these pepper examples. What is the future goal of your trees? You want fruit right now, so you can taste it and decide whether or not to invest moreso into that variety, or do you already know what you want and gear up for a bountiful harvest in a few years?
Maybe you only want a few fat fruit each and every year, with a tiny, stunted tree. In that case, you know what to do.
I personally never let my fruit trees fruit their first year in ground or in a container--period. Containers, I let them fruit 2nd year, and in ground 2nd or 3rd depending on type of fruit and then cultivar. Even then, I may wait longer if there are signs of stress the tree is enduring whether natural or environmental.
It is up to you to do what is best for your trees and for you, and to find that happy median which comes with experience, wisdom and patience along with much trial and error within your growing zone and climate.
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