Help with fruit trees please

[voj maintenance]

Hi all, got a pruning job on today, customer wants trees reduced and thinned etc to promote better fruit growth.

As I look closer at the trees there is a lot of epicormic growth from previous pruning, I've cut a fair bit, rot etc but they don't look much different. They all have canker to some degree and the three at the bottom are full from trunk up, I have suggested cutting them down and replanting but she's not into that. Anyway my question is would you cut back to the primary growth on these trees and then keep the growth in check over coming years to get a better form or persist with the thinning etc. Cheers all.

 

 

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[David Humphries]

Have a look at the Vetree video on restoring and working on old fruit trees.

 

Some good pointers within and a good resource to keep.

 

 

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[voj maintenance]

Cheers I will have a look later

 

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[David Humphries]

Cheers I will have a look later

 

You're welcome,

 

I'm sure you will get other members chipping in with good advice.

 

I'm just keen to see that video out there.

 

 

 

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[agg221]

Hi, some 'chipping in' from me

 

From your picture with the ladder in, it looks like you are treating this like a conventional tree - lifting the lower growth, taking down the top to create a neatly rounded shape etc.

 

Fruit trees need different treatment, particularly if the aim is to get some fruit. You want low growing, horizontal (or below) branches. You want to leave shoots (epicormic usually) along all branches, kept cut short to form fruiting spurs, and you want to thin the whole thing out to let light and air through.

 

If you do this too fast, it will just 'bolt' again, like a pollard, which will mean it doesn't fruit until it has settled down again. You would normally spread the work over 3-5yrs, depending on how vigorous the re-growth is the following year.

 

The usual approach with something like the one in your picture is to take the regrowth back to primary based on diseased or crossing and the most upright shoots out first, h, then the following year the next-most vigorous etc until it is right. The pile in front of it is about the right amount to take off - any more and it will bolt, it just may not have been the right bits.

 

Given where you are with this one, I would look at branch tying as an alternative - picking the best placed regrowth branches and tying them down in an arc to form an extension canopy rather like an umbrella - probably on trees of that size in a single tier. I would want to form this tier within picking height from the ground, so if there is nothing suitable or the primary growth is already too high I wouldn't be afraid of heading back to promote epicormic growth lower down which will ultimately form the new branch structure - this could be something which isn't even growing yet (fruit trees are a long term and ongoing project, although the work does decrease each year).

 

I would advise the customer to keep a 4ft circle around the base of each trunk clear of weeds - not by digging as it will damage the roots but rather by killing the grass - either using weedkiller or mulching out with cardboard covered in matured woodchip or bark mulch. If weedkiller is used, I would still advise a mulch. I would also give a general purpose slow release fertiliser in spring - something like blood, fish and bone.

 

You might find this thread (and those linked from it) give an idea of what can be achieved:

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/98216-management-veteran-kentish-orchard.html

 

Alec

[David Humphries]

Hi, some 'chipping in' from me

 

Well chipped in sir !

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[voj maintenance]

Hi, some 'chipping in' from me

 

From your picture with the ladder in, it looks like you are treating this like a conventional tree - lifting the lower growth, taking down the top to create a neatly rounded shape etc.

 

Fruit trees need different treatment, particularly if the aim is to get some fruit. You want low growing, horizontal (or below) branches. You want to leave shoots (epicormic usually) along all branches, kept cut short to form fruiting spurs, and you want to thin the whole thing out to let light and air through.

 

If you do this too fast, it will just 'bolt' again, like a pollard, which will mean it doesn't fruit until it has settled down again. You would normally spread the work over 3-5yrs, depending on how vigorous the re-growth is the following year.

 

The usual approach with something like the one in your picture is to take the regrowth back to primary based on diseased or crossing and the most upright shoots out first, h, then the following year the next-most vigorous etc until it is right. The pile in front of it is about the right amount to take off - any more and it will bolt, it just may not have been the right bits.

 

Given where you are with this one, I would look at branch tying as an alternative - picking the best placed regrowth branches and tying them down in an arc to form an extension canopy rather like an umbrella - probably on trees of that size in a single tier. I would want to form this tier within picking height from the ground, so if there is nothing suitable or the primary growth is already too high I wouldn't be afraid of heading back to promote epicormic growth lower down which will ultimately form the new branch structure - this could be something which isn't even growing yet (fruit trees are a long term and ongoing project, although the work does decrease each year).

 

I would advise the customer to keep a 4ft circle around the base of each trunk clear of weeds - not by digging as it will damage the roots but rather by killing the grass - either using weedkiller or mulching out with cardboard covered in matured woodchip or bark mulch. If weedkiller is used, I would still advise a mulch. I would also give a general purpose slow release fertiliser in spring - something like blood, fish and bone.

 

You might find this thread (and those linked from it) give an idea of what can be achieved:

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/98216-management-veteran-kentish-orchard.html

 

Alec

Thanks for that Alec, sounds good advice, it's not clear from the pic but the ladder is access to a platform in the tree. The customers late husband built it for the kids I think, it's pretty cool.

I ended up taking down the over all height of that tree then thinning some of the old epicormic growth, mainly multiple shoots to leave single ones. There wasn't much more in the pile after.

The same with the other trees, so hopefully I'm on the right track, I will follow your advice about the mulch, I cut the grass there too so it will make it much easier around the trees.

 

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