Prune Fruit Trees NOW to ensure the best tree structure, fruit size, and yield for your fruit trees. Most fruit trees need pruning every year to cut off unwanted growth, shape the trees, and most importantly to allow the trees access to max sunlight to grow a healthy tree. By taking off some growth, the tree's root system has less to feed, thus you will get more nutrients to the remaining growth, and get larger fruits. In this video, I use persimmon and pear trees as examples of how to prune. If you wait until winter, it's much easier to see the shape of the tree and you don't have to worry about insects getting into the fresh cuts. So get busy and prune those trees.