Trimming Apple Trees

[slk]

I have some large apple trees to trim because they are way too tall to retreive the apples from the top. How much off of the top can you trim at one time, and what time of year would be the best to do this. These trees are at least 25' to 30' tall.

Thanks
Steve

 

[JeffL]

Apples? You can cut em off at the ground and watch them regrow from the stump.

I believe there are times of the year that are beneficial to enhance either fruiting and/or flowering, but I cant quite recall off the top of my head. I'm thinking early spring to take off the new growth?

 

[windthrown]

Yah, you can prune them to the ground all right. But they will not produce many apples that way. My brother pollarded his trees this year to get them lower. They are about 2 feet in diameter, huge for apple trees, but they are standard trees. He cut them to about 12 feet off the ground. They will send out new branches in the spring. Thin those to some good branches and they will form a new branch system that will produce fruit in a year or two.

Best time to prune for fruit and scaffolding structure is early spring just before bud break. You can also do a 'French prune' to cut out the water sprouts and for shape in late summer as well. For larger and harder pruning stuff, you can pretty much do it any time of year, but I would avoid any pruning in later fall and early winter to prevent disease and bug attacks. It is probably the easiest time to prune in early spring, when there are no leaves on the tree.

 

[slk]

So in the spring you think I can get away with cutting about 8 feet out of the top of these trees.

Steve

 

[appalachianarbo]

So in the spring you think I can get away with cutting about 8 feet out of the top of these trees.

Yes. Do it before bud break. BUT - Don't indiscriminately cut wherever it's convenient, though. That will cause weak branch attachments and will promote decay, and tree will sucker terribly, requiring much more work for you. Read up here on proper pruning methods. Scroll down and look at both "pruning young trees" and "pruning mature trees."

It is possible to remove 8' on a 30' apple tree at one time. Get yourself up in the tree or use a pole pruner and make proper cuts back to laterals. Then you can shorten those laterals, too. The new growth from these laterals will produce good fruiting wood. You'll get less fruit than last year, but it will be larger and more flavorful, and will be easier to pick. The apples will also form on shorter, stronger wood, making the tree less prone to bending and breaking with the weight of the apples.

I have some before and after pictures of an apple I did this spring, but I'll have to find them later.

 

[slk]

Great I would apperciate the pictures, and thanks for the detailed advice.

Steve

 

[Dalmatian90]

I highly recommend Fruits & Berries for the Home Garden by Lewis Hill -- http://books.google.com/books?id=sXNPAAAACAAJ&dq=fruits+and+berries+Lewis+Hill

He lives in northern Vermont, so his specialty is short-season fruit and berry trees.

Local (large) orchard near me starts their cutting in January, probably goes for about six weeks. They seem to want to finish up by the time Maple syrup is flowing...they might get 1/3rd of their orchard done each year, although they seem to be getting more done each year as their finances improve (a young couple own the farm). Peak production probably isn't their number 1 goal since getting labor for harvesting is hard here...there are always loads of apples left over winter, so I reckon there's no need for them to try and hire the help to prune the whole orchard each year, either.

I can't speak of whether it's safe to lop of 8' at once. If it was me, I'd work it down over the course of 3/4/5 years.

They do like to be kept HEAVILY pruned and once the tree is pruned down to a reasonable size, the old saying around here is it's pruned well when you reckon you could toss a live cat through it without hitting a branch.

 

[Jlarnard]

I have found that mature apple trees don't respond that well to drastic pruning. Mostly if they have a blight. If there is any evidence of blight, simply spraying your cutting equipment with lysol will help to prevent spread.
I have trimmed an entire orchard, and the results varried greatly. But what I found was the real mature trees didn't respond as well as the less woody trees. Ohhh and the chips from dead apple brush, mmmmm smokers delight. and beautiful landscaping chips.
Post some pics for us to see. We might have more insight.