Pruning for good canopy

[Greenfalco]

Hello, I am hoping to get a good sized canopy from this tree (I believe it is a crab apple tree) that will provide some privacy from the over looking house(s).

 

Is there anything I can do? I.e. pruning in a certain way?... I don’t know much about pruning, and when I look at videos/guides online, the wording/talk is very technical and confusing to me. I could do with a trees for dummies or pruning for absolute newbies guide!

 

It also looks like the tree’s canopy is trying to grow tall and thin, so is there something I need to do in particular to spread it out more?

Many thanks!

GF

Edited March 20, 2020 by Greenfalco

[Gary Prentice]

There are a short series on pruning written by the RHS available individually covering pruning (throughout the plant lives) which are a godsend for new comers. They tell you the time of year to prune, how and where to prune, how much to prune off. Well worth finding second hand as a reference book to everything - shrubs/fruits. climber/vine the lot.

 

It's not this one from amazon but this book is I think a compendium of all the other titles in the series. I'm away from home for a while but if no-one else can help I'll look it up.

 

Formative pruning, to creature a good framework of scaffold limbs can be difficult to create without practice because you're visually how pruning is going to effect future growth to allow you to develop the shape and form of the crown (within the bounds of the trees genetics to some extent). So, if you are are DIYing try to get a basic understand of the reactions you will cause.

 

While you are avidly understand how trees grow, one or two little jobs first.

1) are the trees well anchored in the soil? and not rocky about in the wind

2) grass around new trees is bad. Lots of competition for moisture and air from grass. Sort it out to provide the optimal conditions for tree growth.Good mulch (not piled up the stem)  of well decayed woodchip (Cherry, hawthorn good if you can get it 2-3" deep

Healthy vital/vigorous young trees respond best to pruning and the trees expansion growth will be better too. You don't want to prune and the wait a few years for new growth because the tree isn't establishing and growing well.

 

Looking at the photos you can do a bit towards achieving your goals, but consider trees as an investment. It'll take a bit of time and effort to achieve results but they will be worth it as you've done it yourself and moulded these living organisms to fulfil a need - quite satisfying.

Just get them growing optimally, tree planting on new sites is usually window dressing when all other contingency funds have been spent and the budget for fantastic planting pits, british standard compliant topsoils, drainage/irrigation and support are all top-notch specification. Chances are the ground worker is told to dig a hole other the a plant it and backfill with whatever came out pf the excavation. brick, rubble, gravel what ever. Sometimes you're lucky and the roots actually end up at the bottom of the stem and not waving at the new owner.

 

Do a bit more reading first but I'll happily try to answer more specific questions than you are asking in this post

ATB

Gary

[Stere]

Why cherry and hawthorn chip, is it they are Rosaceae so have same mycorrhizal associations that crab does?

 

 

[Greenfalco]

1 hour ago, Gary Prentice said:

There are a short series on pruning written by the RHS available individually covering pruning (throughout the plant lives) which are a godsend for new comers. They tell you the time of year to prune, how and where to prune, how much to prune off. Well worth finding second hand as a reference book to everything - shrubs/fruits. climber/vine the lot.

 

It's not this one from amazon but this book is I think a compendium of all the other titles in the series. I'm away from home for a while but if no-one else can help I'll look it up.

 

Formative pruning, to creature a good framework of scaffold limbs can be difficult to create without practice because you're visually how pruning is going to effect future growth to allow you to develop the shape and form of the crown (within the bounds of the trees genetics to some extent). So, if you are are DIYing try to get a basic understand of the reactions you will cause.

 

While you are avidly understand how trees grow, one or two little jobs first.

1) are the trees well anchored in the soil? and not rocky about in the wind

2) grass around new trees is bad. Lots of competition for moisture and air from grass. Sort it out to provide the optimal conditions for tree growth.Good mulch (not piled up the stem)  of well decayed woodchip (Cherry, hawthorn good if you can get it 2-3" deep

Healthy vital/vigorous young trees respond best to pruning and the trees expansion growth will be better too. You don't want to prune and the wait a few years for new growth because the tree isn't establishing and growing well.

 

Looking at the photos you can do a bit towards achieving your goals, but consider trees as an investment. It'll take a bit of time and effort to achieve results but they will be worth it as you've done it yourself and moulded these living organisms to fulfil a need - quite satisfying.

Just get them growing optimally, tree planting on new sites is usually window dressing when all other contingency funds have been spent and the budget for fantastic planting pits, british standard compliant topsoils, drainage/irrigation and support are all top-notch specification. Chances are the ground worker is told to dig a hole other the a plant it and backfill with whatever came out pf the excavation. brick, rubble, gravel what ever. Sometimes you're lucky and the roots actually end up at the bottom of the stem and not waving at the new owner.

 

Do a bit more reading first but I'll happily try to answer more specific questions than you are asking in this post

ATB

Gary

Many thanks Gary, I’ll certainly look into them books/series. I’m afraid the specifications are far from top notch and there is plenty of rubble mixed in with the soil.

 

Kind regards,

GF

Edited March 21, 2020 by Greenfalco

[Greenfalco]

GF

[Gary Prentice]

1 hour ago, Stere said:

Why cherry and hawthorn chip, is it they are Rosaceae so have same mycorrhizal associations that crab does?

 

 

IIRC and may not but I think hawthorn has some good protective and anti- disease properties while cherries are higher in sugars that promote growth. 

But it should be noted that using sugar drenches can be counter objective in some species compared to others of the same genus according to some of Dr Glyn Percivals research so shouldn't be used as a 100% panacea to everything. Still early days, but IMO and simply put at worse doing something to mimic a trees natural rooting soil  environmenl to woodland has got o be an improvement and won't usually be harmful.

 

Good question. I think we're still very early in our understanding of all the relationships between different mycorrhizal fungi, which trees have associations, which fungi types have associations and what everything does and how interaction changes with pollutants, pathogens and other component of the soil - incredibly complex.  

But we've gotta start somewhere.

[Peasgood]

2 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

Good mulch (not piled up the stem)  of well decayed woodchip (Cherry, hawthorn good if you can get it 2-3" deep

Is there no risk of fireblight, silverleaf, canker etc. That would be my concern.

No doubt that mulch/compost has a benefit but none of my orchards get it and they do fine. Having said that there is a trend to mulch "modern" orchards.

[Gary Prentice]

59 minutes ago, Greenfalco said:

Many thanks Gary, I’ll certainly look into them books/series. I’m afraid the specifications are far from top notch and there is plenty of rubble mixed in with the soil.

 

Kind regards,

GF

Don't worry too much about bricks and hardcore as long as there's enough available soil around to allow root grow that the trees can spread into, they want to grow and are good at it.

 

It's the pits full of rubbish soil that roots are trapped in that cause the major issues. If you do decide to 'improve' the rooting area be very careful that you don't damage established and new roots. Sometimes you may get away with just cutting the grass to a minimum 1m radius circle around the stem, rake the grass off a circle of permeable landscape membrane and mulch on top. the mulch will break down over time and will need a bit of topping up but will improve the organic content of the soil below - lots of natural nutrients, improve air and moisture percolation to the underlying roots and reduce any compactef soil that would other inhibit root growth. 

 

What's not to love?

[Gary Prentice]

1 minute ago, Peasgood said:

Is there no risk of fireblight, silverleaf, canker etc. That would be my concern.

No doubt that mulch/compost has a benefit but none of my orchards get it and they do fine. Having said that there is a trend to mulch "modern" orchards.

There's a few here much more involved with orchards and fruit tah me who would/could answer this better than me.

 

I've very rarely seen fireblight or silverleaf up here so it's never really worried about. I suppose that in areas where it's more prevalent more effort could be put in the achieve higher temps during composting which I think changes things. 

 

Like a lot of things trees will manage and adapt a lot as long as they're growing unstressed in other areas.

 

Shigo used to write about stress and strain. when we try to grow and manage trees towards the limits of their natural habitats we create stresses/or strains that are close to what the tree can cope with They'll survive (just) but won't flourish and the it just takes a little more push, another straw to turn into deline/failure or death. We too often try to do things half-cocked for any easy solution without considering the holistic approach and look at the whole damn tree. 

Simple answer, mulching benefits soil water evapouration reductions, dought strengthening, soil structure etc etc probably outweigh the disbenefits of not mulching

[Mark J]

There's some useful infomation regarding timing of pruning in this pdf: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274953224_Straightening_Out_the_Askenasy_Curve

Edited March 21, 2020 by Mark J