pruning apple trees

[forgeblast]

Just remember it will want to shoot or waterspout heavily the first year after you trim....try to keep those in check

 

[rodsauder]

Thanks for that. When do I trim them? Do I wait for next winter?

 

[forgeblast]

Summer pruning tends to suppress growth of both suckers and foliage.from A Guide to Successful Pruning, Pruning Deciduous Trees - Home - Virginia Cooperative Extension

 

[California]

... and finish by making sure I can mow around the bottom.

If you take off any broken, ground-dragging limbs first - then its easier for higher pruning debris to fall to the ground and it might help get your ladder nearer the center of the tree.

It's probably in those referenced videos (I haven't looked at them yet) but sometimes restoring old trees you need to cut a path into the jungle of branches to create ladder access into all of the tree. Keep in mind you can't harvest fruit later in the year that is inaccessible.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Good advice, also check with your Ag Extension Service for the county you live in. They will usually come out and get you started or send a Master Gardner that is experienced in trimming apple trees, and its free!

 

[turnkey4099]

This is always the source of my most premium fire wood.

I was once told, how severly orchards apparently prune their trees.

Yep. If it doesn't look like you killed it, take more off Just kidding but that is close.

As for old overgrown trees, I have heard about 30% per year until it is back in shape.

Harry K

 

[Lloyd_E]

Great timing on this thread... just about to start. What would you do with this thing? It has some major rot in the limbs - great housing for birds. It still produces too. I have several around the property not as big and lots of smaller ones.

This is my year of trying to get a handle on the trees... finally getting to it on the list.

 

[California]

What would you do with this thing? It has some major rot in the limbs - great housing for birds.

Looks like the upper third of that tree is beyond the reach of a harvest ladder. I would cut out everything obviously dead, then some out of the top along with many of the vertical suckers, to just reach that limit of 30% maximum per year. Repeat next year until every part of the tree can be reached for harvest. After that you can prune specifically for apple production. You should already be getting a couple hundred pounds or more, no?

More sunlight reaching the lower branches will grow more fruit down where you can reach it.

We have started applying turkey manure broadcast down the orchard rows. This has improved both tonnage and apple size. Its an old orchard with some hundred year old Gravensteins remaining, and old Golden Delicious trees of similar size, with semi-dwarfs (2/3 size) trees used for replacements over the past 40 years. Now we went back to planting full size Gravensteins. Its a premium heirloom variety, and we expect the more extensive roots of full size trees will better tolerate the warming of the climate. (Climate change here isn't just theory - presently is the most severe drought on record.) These would grow as large as your tree but we keep them trimmed down to ladder-accessable height. See my sig photo below this post - there's one old full size Gravenstein down the row behind the little red tractor while the other trees are semi-dwarf.

Added:
Same photo as my sig photo except winter. (And zoomed to show the trees). I just now went out and took this.

The point here is that pruning on the modern trees is to expand growth outward instead of upward.

That large old Gravenstein is a little taller than ideal for harvest. But it blocks view of my neighbor's house across the canyon so I haven't topped it for a while. Looking at its big trunk, I think the trunk is original (1910?) while the superstructure is half that age and grew out to replace fallen limbs. There are a couple more ancient trees down that row which are maintained to more reasonable size.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Cali,

I can reach top third barely, with a man-lift on my tractor. I measured the trunk for a local country mag the other week - there is a bit of a challenge regarding apple tree size and age in recent issues. It measured 7'9" circumference just at the of the snowbank in the pic. When the snow goes I will remeasure should be close to 8'. The main horizontal and vertical limbs have rot but the branches are live beyond that -towards the tips of the limbs. They blossom and produce a good amount every second year.

I may rework the photo to show cut strategy and repost for your consult if you don't mind.

Thanks.

Lovely orchard and spot you have there. Nothing like a well planned visual orchard.

 

[rodsauder]

I am learning lots , so Thanks to everyone for replying. Here is a few pics of what I am working with.