Pruning my apple tree!

[Dan_IN_MN]

Please help me prune my apple tree. Here is a picture of how it is now. I would like apples next season so I don't want to remove too much, if that matters. I really don't have a clue where to start.... I've read a few sites but reading and doing are two different things. Would someone be willing to take a picture editing program and give me some guide lines on what to leave and what to remove? And....possibly give reasons. I'm sure it hasn't been pruned in years. We've owned this place for 3 years.

Thanks

Here is a picture of what I've learned reading the links provided in the responses below. Are there any branches that I shouldn't cut that I've marked? I'm sure there are branches that I should have marked.

Dan

 

[jrietkerk]

that is a tough one - it looks like it has never been pruned, beyond lifting it for a lawn mower. What has the fruit production been like? There are tip bearing trees and spur bearing trees - this looks like a tip bearer, maybe a Granny Smith?

I would recommend some reduction pruning to make it more manageable - for later pruning and for fruit picking. Do a summer prune on it to avoid vigourous sprouting afterwards - pick suitable laterals for size and direction and form and just reduce it. Go at least 1/3 this year, and then a bit more next year. The resultant growth can be managed easier - you can use some pruning principles that you can look up. Take your time - there's some good tricks that are specific not only to tip or spur bearers, but to specific species. I'm always learning about that, not so much the imaging programs, but that's a good idea too.

Don't know your background - if you need to start with basics like proper cuts and directing growth you might want to get some help. If you start making heading cuts all over you'll have a huge mess on your hands!

 

[arbor pro]

This kind of pruning is easy to explain - 'take this type of branch, leave that type, prune back to this kind of lateral, use a rule of 1/3rd of the tree, etc, etc, etc.

If you took my advice and pruned the tree, chances are very good that you would end up with something different than what I was trying to explain to you. I can explain it but, you won't be able to comprehend it unless we are both standing there and I am telling you what branches to cut.

My advice...for this first time, do some research and hire someone who actually knows what he/she is doing and let them do the work. Ask them if they will let you watch and show you how to maintain it from there. If you're honest with him/her up front about your intentions, you should be able to find someone to help you out. If you can't find a professional arborist who is willing to do this, try calling a local university and asking if they have a forestry, landscape or horticulture department and see if you can get a professor to give you a lead on a student who has had some training in tree care who might like to help you out for a few bucks. Beware however, that the student will likely be uninsured so, maybe you'd want to do the work and just let the student teach you how to do it...

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

Thanks for the reply's!

I think that I'll go to an apple orchard and ask, watch, and learn.

Thanks for the reply's!

Dan

 

[windthrown]

If you want apple fruit, you will need to prune it a heck of a lot. For several reasons. Do a search on apple pruning and you will find some of my earleir fruit tree pruning advice.

On the tree in the middle of the photo, the limbs are way too long and whispy to hold any fruit. So you will have to prune all the thin long branches off. Then you will have to set up a scaffold system from the branches that are left, to hold the smaller branches and fruit on the tree. It is a split tree, but you could (I would advise) set up a central leader system on each side of the tree. That requires some analysis and planning on your part. You will also have to set up a fruit spur system on what is left that you do not prune, and that can take time, on the order of a few years. Chances are that you will cut a large amount of fruit spurs off on the long branches that you prune the first time. Apple spurs live for 20 years, so once the tree is pruned properly, you should prune them very hard every year (if you want the most fruit).

In the end, you really cannot over-prune an apple tree. We have some here that are 50 years old, and we hacked them back to pollarded stumps.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

Thanks for the replys!

Thanks for the replys! I think that I'll give this pruning a try.

Here is a thread I found that has some good info. http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=40498&page=3&highlight=windthrown+pruning


Would any one have a picture of what a "scaffold" looks like on a tree?

Thanks

Dan

 

[windthrown]

Would any one have a picture of what a "scaffold" looks like on a tree?

Thanks

Dan

A scaffold is the type of support system that you set you tree up to have, using various types of pruning. Like a central vase (old system, I advise against that) or central leader.

Here are some sites that explain and illustrate the terms:

http://cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-306.html
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag29.html
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/central.htm

Here is also one from OSU that has good illustrations and details on how to restore old apple trees like the one you have:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1005/

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

Thanks for the links!

Thanks for the links! I'll check them out!

Dan

 

[Toddppm]

The OSU link is pretty good, thanks for the info.

How much sun does this tree get ? It looks like it's surrounded by other trees that will be blocking it out.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

The OSU link is pretty good, thanks for the info.

How much sun does this tree get ? It looks like it's surrounded by other trees that will be blocking it out.

The tree is on the north side of the house.....It's 3:45 and there is sun on the tree.

Dan

 

[046]

thanks for the most excellent links!

A scaffold is the type of support system that you set you tree up to have, using various types of pruning. Like a central vase (old system, I advise against that) or central leader.

Here are some sites that explain and illustrate the terms:

http://cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-306.html
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag29.html
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/central.htm

Here is also one from OSU that has good illustrations and details on how to restore old apple trees like the one you have:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1005/

 

[windthrown]

From your lines in the second photo, I would either go up a foot or two on the cuts above the main trunk forks that are being left in place, or cut the main two trunks lower. Personally I would cut them lower to produce a tree that has lower hanging fruit with branches coming off of them with radial leader form. You have to account for where the new branch scaffolding will grow into, for form, height and strength.

But overall you have the right idea.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

If you want apple fruit, you will need to prune it a heck of a lot. For several reasons. Do a search on apple pruning and you will find some of my earleir fruit tree pruning advice.

Apple spurs live for 20 years, so once the tree is pruned properly, you should prune them very hard every year (if you want the most fruit).

In the end, you really cannot over-prune an apple tree. We have some here that are 50 years old, and we hacked them back to pollarded stumps.

How does tell what Apple spurs are?

Thanks

Dan

 

[windthrown]

How does tell what Apple spurs are?

Thanks

Dan

Apple spurs are little nubby branch growths that occur on the branches. They start from one flower and often times at the point where a leaf stem appears. That flower will set fruit and form an absision layer in the stem when the fruit is ripe and falls off, and the next year a flower or flowers will appear from the same place. Leaves can and will also grow from old spur scars, and in apples they tend to branch (apples tend to have double branching of stems, flowers and spurs). Spurs live for up to 20 years on apples, and after a few years they form scaley looking small branches.

It is not too easy to distinguish a fruiting spur from a branch bud when they are young. Once they flower you can differentiate them though. I like to prune my fruit trees when they are just about starting leaf out. Later than most recommend, but UC Davis studies indicate that the later in winter that you prune, the more healthy the tree will be and the faster they will heal over the pruning cuts. Seemingly the earlier in winter or fall that you prune, the longer that disease and weather can cause damage to pruning cuts.

At any rate, here is a not so great photo of an apple fruiting spur. Actually from the branch I would guess that this is of a pear tree, but they grow the same on both. This one has branches, and will wind up with 2 flowers from the looks of it. It was taken after the leaves came out, but before flowering.

 

[windthrown]

Here is another one of a winter fruit spur after pruning. It is an old one from the size and shape of it. Probably pruned to renew it (you should cut 1/20 of the old apple spurs every year to allow new ones to form when they are fully formed trees). The formula for cutting fruit spurs is 1/over the number of years that the spurs live on that type of tree. Apples and pear spurs live for about 20 years. Plumb spurs live for about 5 years as I recall.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

Thanks for the replys!

I think that I'm getting it.

Thanks

Dan