How To Prune A Lemon Tree In New Zealand

Lemon Tree Pruning

Lemon tree pruning is essential for healthy growth and abundant fruit production. It involves selectively removing branches to improve airflow, sunlight penetration, and overall tree structure. Regular pruning prevents overcrowding, reduces disease risk, and encourages new, fruit-bearing growth. Proper pruning techniques ensure a vigorous, productive lemon tree.

How To Prune A Lemon Tree

Lemon trees are generally only trimmed to excess branches or to thin out the branches. Trees grown commercially are trimmed to “open up” the trees. In other words, when the pruning is finished you can loosely see through the tree. That allows air to flow through freely and the fruit to be easily picked. Most importantly, it helps keep the trees smaller overall and reduces the chances of biennial bearing.

Cut the branches right back to the main stem as you thin them out. You will be thinking that you're taking too much off and rightly so. However, if you can't see through the tree once complete, you haven't taken enough off!

Pruning is best done during late spring or summer when plants are in active growth. You can be as gentle or aggressive as you like as they will sprout again from cut stumps. Lemons are very forgiving plants and even if you get the trimming wrong, they will generally recover! Light trimming to shape the plant can be done at any time.

How Hard Can I Prune A Lemon Tree?

Lemon trees will sprout when cut right back, even up to 10 cm above ground level! However, this relies on the plant having heathy shoots at the outset. This activity is best undertaken during spring or summer using secateurs. Please note: Lemons grown in shade environments may struggle to re-establish when cut back severely. The Plant Company does not recommend cutting plants any lower than 20 cm above ground level to ensure a better chance of success with this procedure. We also recommend that any such cutting is made well above the graft, otherwise it will be just the rootstock that grows.

Lemon Tree Hedge

Lemon trees can be used to make impenetrable hedges (due to their thorns) with the advantage of fruit production. Moreover, they can be either formal (i.e., trimmed) or informal (not trimmed). To create an outstanding formal hedge The Plant Company recommends spacing them 60 cm apart. The faster you want the hedge to fill in, the closer they should be planted is the general rule. With this planting regime they will close in quickly and push each other upwards as they compete for light. The result is a fabulous hedge every time.

You can go out to 80 cm if the budget is tight but that will often result in a gap at the bottom between plants which is hard to fill. The gap results from the natural vase shape with which these plants grow. In this situation opt for smaller grade sizes and plant more of them rather than going with bigger plants as this will make the money go further and produce a better result in the longer term.

If 25L grades (or bigger) are purchased which are 1m tall and lush, you can space these 1.2 m apart without issue. These grades have generally been manicured to ensure they are bushy to the base and will therefore branch and fill in more easily.

For informal hedges, the plants would normally be spaced 1.2-1.5 m apart. A wider spacing allows for the natural, rounded shape of the tree to prevail. The hedge is then just lightly trimmed 1-2 times per year.

When Is The Best Time To Trim A Lemon Tree?

Lemon trees can be trimmed at any time of the year, though summer is the time recommended by The Plant Company for any aggressive cutting back. The plants will sprout new shoots just below the cut, and at this time of year they can produce new growth quickly. Light trimming to remove unsightly foliage can occur at any time of year.