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Let me share with you a beginners method to prune apple trees.
Every year in the winter I always tell myself that I am going to get this apple tree pruning job done. My story year to year is the same. Sure enough, March comes, and I am up to my neck in seed starts and tomato transplants. The apple pruning will have to wait. The beautiful flowers in May attract the honey bees. Oh well, next year I will trim it. Hear I am now today. I have my hat, gloves, and gear in hand and I am looking at these wild narly trees and think, where in the world do I even begin. I am a ball of nerves thinking I am going to kill this precious source of fruit. Let me share with you a beginners method to prune apple trees.
Every year in the winter I always tell myself that I am going to get this apple tree pruning job done. My story year to year is the same. Sure enough, March comes, and I am up to my neck in seed starts and tomato transplants. The apple pruning will have to wait. The beautiful flowers in May attract the honey bees. Oh well, next year I will trim it. Hear I am now today. I have my hat, gloves, and gear in hand and I am looking at these wild narly trees and think, where in the world do I even begin. I am a ball of nerves thinking I am going to kill this precious source of fruit. Let me share with you a beginners method to prune apple trees.
Measure twice cut once
We have all heard that expression from maybe our dads working in the wood shop or with our moms working on a quilt pattern. But today, I need to adopt “do your homework first, then cut once ” mentality. I think the older I get, I feel like I have to think everything through and then act upon. Is that a sign of wisdom? So I started to read up on it and check out you tube videos and all that. It is our world today right? Let me tell ya, I was overwhelmed and this little job was just getting way to technical and sophisticated. I just want to lob the branch off ok and enjoy the quick reward of looking at well designed tree.
Nothing in our world is simple it seems if you want to have success. So, we went to town and got a new lobbers. Mine was was to dull and it is important to have a nice clean cut. We will talk about that later.
Equipment needed
The 3 Ds
- dead
- disease
- damaged
This is the first step in checking your apple tree. Identify any branches or limbs that are dead, diseased, or damaged. In the picture below, dead and diseased is easily recognized. Note how the wood is different color and is brittle. Cut it back to just above the nearest flowering bud or to the branch collar.
In this case we cut it all the way back to the branch collar. Use your pruning saw if it is a bigger limb. But in order to avoid damage at the branch collar, make three cuts starting with first cut starting halfway between the branch collar and the 2 cut. This cut is only going to be a partial cut from the underside. Then cut at arrow furthest on the left. Final cut is at the collar. Try to cut just along the outer edge of the branch collar. The tree will has its own chemicals and will heal itself. It is important that you work will clean equipment and clean the pruner equipment between each tree with a small amount of isopropyl alchohol on the cutting blades. This will help prevent cross contamination of potential bacteria.
This cut below was made on a younger tree but the same principle applies.
To stimulate new growth on a branch, use a heading cut just above the growth bud. The cut needs to be made on a outward facing wood bud. It is important to identify the fruit buds and growth buds.
So think about it this way. Prune above the growth buds to shape the tree and prune flower buds to adjust the yield of the tree.
Advantages to Pruning yearly
- remove the dead, diseased, and damaged branches and limbs for tree health
- make a basic structure of the tree so it can grow well
- let the sunlight in the tree canopy to help fruits ripen
Creating a shape
The goal is to have an apple tree that is shaped for easier harvesting. They are three main shapes to a tree and they are:
- Central leader
- Modified Central leader
- Open Center or vase shape
To begin, remove any sucker branches at the base of the tree. They are just an energy zap. Then remove any water sprouts and whorls. Next, remove branches that are 4 feet from the ground also. It is important to remove any branches that are touching or crisscrossing other branches. Use your lobbers to remove downward branches that hang from a lateral or scaffold branch. These do not produce fruit.
We are working towards a modified central leader system. Because this is the first year trimming, a lot of branches that were hanging down towards the ground were removed. Please don’t cut more than 30 % of the overall tree otherwise it will be stressful on the tree. It is recommended to wait till the next season.
Select scaffolds on different sides of the main leader and remove scaffolds that are closer than 10 to 12 inches at their base because each scaffold will develop branches. Keep the side branches that have wide angles and thin out the ones that grow towards the trunk or the other permanent scaffolds. The limbs you pick for the scaffolds should be at least 60 -90 degree angles. As you can see in our first picture, we had tight angles on thicker limbs, so we elected to remove them. We also removed a few branches that were growing towards the ground. It will allow for better air circulation and easier for us to mow. Once you have the leader identified, start pruning.
Pruning Cuts
The idea here is to cut back to a bud or limb but in the right direction. So what you want to do is look at what you need to trim or prune. Find the growth bud. Cut just above the bud on a slanting line parallel to the buds growing direction. Here is the kicker though. Find the bud that is an outward facing and that will be directed away from a neighboring branch. If you don’t follow this general principal, the new branch will eventually grow over and then you have to remove it. Prune any branches that are downward facing. Prune apple tree branches that are growing back towards the center of the tree.
Heading cuts
Heading cuts are generally done when the apple tree is pretty young. The central leader is cut back about 3 feet above the highest scaffold branch. The scaffold branches can be cut a foot or more to keep the height below the leader.
The first pruning job of the apple trees are done before the fog rolled in. We stayed on the conservative side of things for this season. Are you ready to give it a try?