Pruning Fruit Trees on Mallorca: The Pruning Calendar

If you take on a finca with a few dozen trees on Mallorca, you'll hit the same question your first winter: when do I prune what? The rule of thumb from back home, "prune fruit trees in February once the frost eases," doesn't help much here. On the island, almond trees are already flowering in January, oranges are still hanging on the tree in March, and the olive tree gets pruned after the harvest, not before. Pruning fruit trees on Mallorca means, above all, knowing each species' own calendar. This article gives you the timing for citrus, olives, almonds, and figs, explains briefly how the pruning itself is done, what a gardener charges per tree, and where the cuttings go afterward.

Why the pruning calendar back home doesn't work here

Pruning fruit trees on Mallorca means the annual cutback of citrus, olive, almond, and fig trees during each species' own dormant period. Unlike in Central Europe, the island has no single pruning month for all species, because harvest, flowering, and frost risk fall in different months depending on the tree.

Back home, most fruit trees rest from November to March, and you prune sometime in that window. On Mallorca, winter is mild, and every tree does something different: the almond tree flowers in the middle of January, the orange tree carries fruit through winter, and the olive gets harvested well into January. Prune everything in February and you'll cut off the almond's flowers, and with them the harvest, and cut off the orange tree's ripe fruit.

On top of that, there's an issue nobody deals with back home: the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa. First detected on Mallorca in 2016, it affects olives, almonds, and figs among other species, according to the Balearic government's Servicio de Sanidad Forestal. Spain's Ministry of Agriculture has published a guide to good pruning practice (PDF), which is the source for some of the rules below. For more on what else this bacterium causes, see the article on pests on Mallorca.

The pruning calendar for your finca

The timings below apply to a typical finca with a few dozen trees, not to a commercial grower working to a harvest schedule and cooperative. They summarize the recommendations in the Spanish guide and the practice of gardeners on Mallorca.

• Olive tree: after the harvest, ideally February and March. The guide specifically names these two months, because pruning later encourages the tree to sprout less. In coastal towns, pruning often starts as early as January. An olive tree tolerates thinning out but not a radical cutback every year; every two to three years is usually enough.
• Citrus trees (orange, lemon, mandarin): after the last harvest and once the frost risk has passed, so from March to May depending on the variety. Light touch-ups, such as removing water shoots from the trunk, can be done through summer. A heavy cutback in the height of summer leaves sunburn on the newly exposed bark.
• Almond tree: never during flowering, which on Mallorca starts as early as January. Either prune in December, before the buds open, or after the harvest in September. If you're not sure when the flowering happens, see the article on almond blossom on Mallorca.
• Fig tree: in February, just before it leafs out. A second, light prune at the end of summer helps next year's fruiting. Figs bleed heavily when cut, so fewer, cleaner cuts are better than many small ones.

One rule applies to every species: never prune right after rain. The guide warns that fungi produce far more spores in the days following rain and enter through fresh cuts. Waiting two to three dry days is enough.

How pruning is done, in brief

Pruning on Mallorca is more about thinning out than shaping. The goal is a canopy that lets light and air reach the center, because in summer the problem is heat and drought, not lack of growth. In practice, you remove things in this order:

1. Dead and diseased wood, recognizable by dry bark or missing leaves.
2. Water shoots, the vertical, soft growth coming straight out of the trunk and thick branches. They bear no fruit and draw water.
3. Branches that cross each other or grow inward.
4. Only after that, if needed, height. If you don't want to use a ladder, keep citrus and fig trees to around two meters.

The guide specifically advises against sharp winter pruning on olives and almonds, because it makes the tree put out a lot of soft new growth, and that's exactly what the meadow spittlebug, which spreads Xylella, prefers. A restrained cut protects the tree twice over. Cover larger cuts, from about five centimeters in diameter, with a wound sealant; thin branches don't need it.

If you also have hedges and palms alongside your trees, you'll find the timing for those in the article on garden maintenance: hedges and tree pruning.

What a gardener charges per tree

Prices for tree pruning on Mallorca are barely standardized, because a tree's size, condition, and accessibility decide almost everything. As a guide for 2026, based on Spanish price-comparison sites and quotes on the island:

With twenty or thirty trees, the day rate is almost always cheaper than the per-tree price. An experienced gardener can get through ten to fifteen medium-sized olive trees in a day. Ask whether they bring a chipper along, since that saves you the trip to the recycling center. And get the price in writing beforehand, WhatsApp is fine; anyone who starts with "we'll see" usually bills by the hour at the end.

The simplest solution for the February prune is therefore a chipper: the material stays under the trees as mulch, which saves water in summer. Whatever can't be chipped goes to your municipality's Punt Verd. For details on quantities and opening hours, see the article on disposing of garden waste on Mallorca. If you suspect Xylella, meaning leaves suddenly drying out from the tip inward, don't haul the cuttings away yourself: report it to the Sanidad Vegetal, who will decide what happens to them.

The mistakes that cost you the harvest

When should you prune fruit trees on Mallorca? Olives after the harvest in February and March, citrus after the last harvest from March onward, almonds before flowering in December or after the harvest in September, figs in February. Never prune right after rain, and never prune hard in summer heat.

The most common mistakes on a finca, in our experience, are always the same ones:

• Pruning every tree the same weekend because the gardener happens to be there. The almond tree loses its flowers as a result.
• Cutting the olive tree back hard every single year. It then sprouts heavily but carries no olives for a year or two.
• Quickly thinning out citrus trees in July. The bark burns, and the tree drops its fruit.
• Piling up cuttings in May to "burn later." By then the season is closed, and the pile sits in the garden until October.
• Ignoring branches hanging over into the neighbor's property. Under Spanish law, a neighbor is allowed to cut back what hangs over under certain conditions; details in the guide to neighbour law.

Bottom line

Pruning fruit trees on Mallorca isn't a single date on the calendar, it's four: December for almonds, February for figs and the start of olive pruning, March to May for citrus, September for almonds after harvest. Stick to that order and after two years you'll have trees that need far less water and still bear fruit. Budget one to two days of gardener's time per winter for a typical finca, and plan the green waste at the same time, before wildfire season starts on May 1. If you're still looking for the finca itself, the guide to long-term finca rentals can help you work out how many trees you actually want to take on.