pruning apple trees

[bigpat]

I know a little about this, but I'm far from being an expert. I have a couple of older trees that haven't been pruned in a long time, maybe never. I'd like to prune them up but I don't want to kill them. Do I just cut off all the smooth sucker branches? Thanks.

[Seldom]

LOL! For some unexplainable reason, pruning fruit trees is one of the hardest things for me to understand!!

I've got a couple of friends that actually have commercial orchards and I've questioned them in depth several times about pruning. All they tell me to do is CUT everything that's growing UP off the scaffold branches and LEAVE everything that's growing horizontally or downward. Cut any branch that's impinging on another. When you're all done, you should be able to toss a football through the tree and never touch a branch. Or so THEY said!
Good luck to you! ;D

[fallenmallard22]

this is what I do for work. Not a pro yet but am in the process of becoming an ISA certified arborist.

there are about a million different ways to prune an apple tree.
There is the way to prune for max fruit production,
the way to prune for astetics (spelling)
and doing both.

Correcting the habits of an oldgrowth apple tree takes more than just a year. the best time to prune is late fall through early spring before budbreak. (when the buds actually break out of the bud shape). this will limit the amount of sucker growth. If you prune after budbreak the tree senses it is being attacked and spends more energy into the growth of suckers rather than fruit.

if you are pruining for max fruit production Seldom is along the right train of thought. Orchard pruning is for max fruit, but also for low branches and strong branch unions. A horizontal growing branch will hold more wieght in fruit than a vertical.

For more astetics you want to try to keep a general shape to the tree.

This is all really hard to explain in general because every tree takes a different approach. but for your really old trees, suckers that are growing veritical and root sprouts you can pretty much take out.

any conflicting branches: the more horizontal growing branch gets priority so cut the other. but only if it has a place to grow to thats not going to conflict in another year.

All dead wood can be removed.

if you are going to make large cuts to reduce some of the hight dont do to many large cuts in one year. Spread it out over a couple. Set up almost a yearly plan for the tree. sometimes you may want to leave a branch just to cut it the next year, just to help the tree deal with it

Plus there is also a correct way to cut a branch and an incorrect way. You want to cut right at the branch collar but not actually cut the collar itself. I will draw up a diagram and post it in a little bit. Mabye I will post up a general how to for apple pruning with pics of one we have out back that needs a prune bad. but for now this will hopefully help you. if you have questions more than happy to try and answer them.

[fallenmallard22]

Its not an apple tree but this is the branch collar and where to cut on an oak



this collar is a lot larger on an oak than an apple. on the apple trees you can pretty much just find the bump on the bottom of the branch and cut it so it pretty much comes even with the stem on the top side.

[Admin]

Pat, I worked pruning for a commercial orchard for two winters back in the late 80's and I was always amazed at how much wood they had us remove from a tree each season, plus they would do a light summer prune as well. The orchard trees were pruned for max fruit and the process had a strong focus on creating heavy horizontal branches. Think of every cut you make as a road block. With this theory, you can direct the growth of the branches in any direction you want. At the orchard they wanted us to direct the growth of the limbs so that there wasn't any blind spots or empty holes in the overall shape of the tree. They wanted to keep upper branches from shading out the lower ones so we directed the growth of these branches with the pruning. For example: If you place one hand directly over another and think of them as branches of a tree, you would see that the hand on the bottom would be shaded by the one above. We would snip the branches just beyond a fork (to simulate a road block) forcing the branch to grow off to the left or right, which would be like now positioning your hands in the 11:00 and 1:00 position. All suckers would be removed and mostly all vertical growth as well. When you attack an old growth tree for it's first pruning it can be a daunting task. As long as you do this while the tree is dormant you should be pretty safe. You won't get a lot of apples the first year after a radical prune but they should be bigger fruit. Old neglected apple trees have tiny little golfball apples because all the trees energy is devoted to making suckers. Pruning will direct the energy into fruit but it may take a couple years to get it where you want it.

[bigpat]

Thanks a lot for the help guys. I poked around on the 'net today for quite a while, and didn't find this much info. I've been snipping off a few suckers here and there, now I should be able to finish them up. The deer are coming in each night and eating the tips of all the branches I cut. Makes a lot less clean-up for me! Can one of the mods give each of thes guys a karma for me? Thanks.

[treerodent]

This is a very good read! How big do you let an apple tree get before you start to prune them? Definitly worth some karma.

[mbalmu7]

Great post guys. I've been working on a few apple trees I found in a thicket behind my house. You couldn't tell they were apple trees for all the thorn bushes around them. I cut all the thorn bushes that were inside the drip line and will start on the trees with this new info. Thanks.

[Admin]

Treerodent,
They start pruning trees when they're still saplings. There's not a lot of sucker pruning at that age, it's more to get the tree forming to the right shape and prevent it from shooting straight upward like a maple sapling would do. You just gotta make sure you prune in winter while they are dormant.

[mooreorless]

Thanks for the info guys! ;D I spent the afternoon pruning my four apple trees that I planted two years ago as well as two that have never been pruned and one that I done a radical prune on last year, which I had no idea what I was doing at that time. All three of these I actually considered taking down, but after reading the posts on here I felt confident that I could save them, and save them I did. I can't wait to see how these babies do this year. Thanks alot guys! ;D ;D

[bigpat]

Thanks for bringing this post back up mooreorless. It's that time of year again. I pruned 3 trees last winter, with very good results. Two of these are really old trees, so my main goal with them was just to remove as much useless growth as I could, rather than any shaping. There are a few other trees scattered around my fields that I'm getting ready to work on. Now I just need to get some good info about spraying and stuff like that.

[mooreorless]

bigpat said:

Now I just need to get some good info about spraying and stuff like that.

I would also like to here some info on this. ;D

[bluedog]

I heard the apple wood was to use for your smokers to.

[flyguy]

Here's a site hope it helps you guys
extension.usu.edu/files/gardpubs/hg363.pdf

[Admin]

Some good info there flyguy ;D Have a karma