Apple tree pruning

[peds]

On 17/03/2023 at 20:51, Peasgood said:

Apple trees in gardens often serve a different purpose than in an orchard as you point out that in this case it is for screening first and foremost.

 

A thought popped into my head whilst driving in this morning. Do you have any experience with tip bearing varieties? When I was learning about them they seemed to be a bit of a pointless endeavour, I never understood their value.

 

But would they work well in this exact scenario, as a screen in a garden that also happens to grow fruit?

[Peasgood]

3 hours ago, peds said:

A thought popped into my head whilst driving in this morning. Do you have any experience with tip bearing varieties? When I was learning about them they seemed to be a bit of a pointless endeavour, I never understood their value.

 

But would they work well in this exact scenario, as a screen in a garden that also happens to grow fruit?

The only ones I have had any experience with have been Bramley and Discovery which are partial tip bearers. Treat them the same .

[Trailoftears]

It depends of course on many factors-rootstock/variety/available space/customer requirements and so on.I see so many Apple trees that have been 'clipped' on their top growth until they resemble elevated witches brooms.Always a good starting point-dead/diseased/badly placed branches-remove.Also ideally,allow as much light into the interior of the tree as possible to facilitate ripening of the interior fruits.Also ideally,you need to 'know' the individual-does it fruit heavily but with low-grade fruit?In which case,less is more-its far better to have 80 top quality apples as opposed to 250 mediocre fruits for most people.Also,a healthy Apple tree will react aggressively to over-heavy pruning.Look at the shape, don't shorten branches-but rather, within reason remove them entirely with a view to the heart and shape of the tree.Then be prepared to revisit the tree nxt spring to regulate and thin the inevitable unwanted basal shoots.

[Steven P]

Kind of goes with what I do with my apples, take away any thing that is obviously dead or looking 'off' (diseased), take them back to where they originate from, then look at any branches that are crossing each other and touching - get rid of which ones you think you should and then keep the inside open so that it is more of a goblet - open in the inside - rather than a mass of branches, Apples ripen with sunlight, so need to let them get access to that.

 

After that if you want a shape go for it.

 

The cooker in the back I have let let go a bit - trimmed back the branches part way and late last year purely so I could get past with the mewer,., and the branches low down went mad., The ones I did in the spring - the high up ones and trimmed back more carefully have done as they should.

 

 

Apples are fairly robust (most fruit trees are), get it wrong and it just takes time for them to recover and then to fix what you need to - examples here are My Boys tree was snapped off at ground level, last spring sprouted again, and next doors pears were butchered 6 years ago but are slowly coming back again now, Dad used to cut his cherry tree down every 10 years, grew back again OK

[Stere]

Hundreds of trees to be felled for Cambridge bus route to tackle climate change | Environment | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

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Councillors vote to chop down trees in Coton Orchard for busway from Cambridge to Cambourne

 

 

Some big old apple trees in this pic^

[Peasgood]

5 minutes ago, Stere said:

Hundreds of trees to be felled for Cambridge bus route to tackle climate change | Environment | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

---

Councillors vote to chop down trees in Coton Orchard for busway from Cambridge to Cambourne

 

 

Some big old apple trees in this pic^

It seems the priority in candidates for councils and government is to be a feckin idiot. How the feck did we end up in this state.

[daveatdave]

all the new houses to be built how many cars per Houshold and how many will use the bus  

[Steven P]

10 hours ago, daveatdave said:

all the new houses to be built how many cars per Houshold and how many will use the bus  

 

If local to me is any guide, double fronted garage, double width drive and a nod that the bus stop is 1/4 mile away with 4 buses an hour, but no re-routed bus service even when there are 100+ new houses. Oh, and the local jobs are not in town either, but Glasgow so each of these cars will be making a 15+ mile round trip 5 days a week.

[daveatdave]

12 hours ago, Steven P said:

 

If local to me is any guide, double fronted garage, double width drive and a nod that the bus stop is 1/4 mile away with 4 buses an hour, but no re-routed bus service even when there are 100+ new houses. Oh, and the local jobs are not in town either, but Glasgow so each of these cars will be making a 15+ mile round trip 5 days a week.

our busses are one a hour if they turn up then change about 5 pm to every 2 hrs but there is a gap of three hours when they change over