A nice petrol/battery mashup.

[Trailoftears]

Being a general landscaper, during the earlier quiet months of the Year I've developed a round of hard fruit tree pruning from the turn of the year up to the end of March.Mostly over large bramley type Apple trees.I tend to cleanly take off the top third or so.No stubs or possible vertical growth areas left.So involving taking out 4-6" main trunks cleanly down to lower arching down branches.This spring the ideal combo strikes me as the 18v makita battery saw (duc254) for swiftly taking off the unwanted heads off the tree for say,up to 3" or so.Then to cleanly remove the main trunk areas,the makita Dcs230T little petrol saw really comes into its own-tiny/light but with patience will cheerfully cut through 5"+ gnarley apple trunks.I find the worst part of jobs like this is getting the major cut branches out of the tree canopy.The lower areas I tend to leave alone as much as possible,apart from the obvious slight shortening/spur reduction/dead/diseased removal etc.Then hopefully you leave behind an accessible reasonably lowish fruit framework for your customer with the easy future job of removing opportunistic basal shoots off while soft.

[Dan Maynard]

I'd probably use the 36v Makita for 5" stems. 

[Stere]

Any pictures?

 

I have thet same makita 18v topper but so far im mostly using a silkly zubat type samurai saw  with a  jap tripod ladder. Also use  a  samurai saw on a short  pole  and ARS wire type pole lopper. 

 

Recommend  the ARS its alot nicer to use than the  wolfgarten string pole lopper.

 

Regular petrol chainsaw & cordless one used  to chop up any larger branches once removed from trees.

 

If it was a bigger orchards making more large cuts might I would use the cordless saw more but the largest orchard  a do is only about 25 trees. Im prunning to my personal taste so leaving trees taller dependent on there rootstocks as I  prefer how they look, a more natural shape - not more than 1/3 removed at one time.

 

Some large diameter cuts  to initailly renovate negelected trees  then its  less often needed....

 

All the apples aren't harvested anyway probably only less than  5% buy the customer.....so don't care that much if some can't  be reached  that easily. Some cider guy comes and  picks  (free apples) in return for a few bottles etc   but most are left to rot.

 

Its amazing how much volume of apples a small orchard of  about 25  on trees on larger rootstock produces. Probalby  a few tonnes.... at least?

 

Can hardly see the ground in autum covered in fallers... like in this pic from the  internet...

 

 

Kind of beautiful if  also wasteful.

[coppice cutter]

The apples being left to rot and feed the ground presumably also increases the productivity of the trees.

 

Usually the balance is the other way!

[Trailoftears]

Its true,so,so many customers just cant be arsed to harvest/use their apples,it does my head in when you arrive to do a half hour lawn cut which turns into an hour job due to apple raking/dodging wasps and going home smelling like a confirmed alky cider drinker!

[Trailoftears]

On 30/04/2023 at 12:43, Stere said:

Any pictures?

 

I have thet same makita 18v topper but so far im mostly using a silkly zubat type samurai saw  with a  jap tripod ladder. Also use  a  samurai saw on a short  pole  and ARS wire type pole lopper. 

 

Recommend  the ARS its alot nicer to use than the  wolfgarten string pole lopper.

 

Regular petrol chainsaw & cordless one used  to chop up any larger branches once removed from trees.

 

If it was a bigger orchards making more large cuts might I would use the cordless saw more but the largest orchard  a do is only about 25 trees. Im prunning to my personal taste so leaving trees taller dependent on there rootstocks as I  prefer how they look, a more natural shape - not more than 1/3 removed at one time.

 

Some large diameter cuts  to initailly renovate negelected trees  then its  less often needed....

 

All the apples aren't harvested anyway probably only less than  5% buy the customer.....so don't care that much if some can't  be reached  that easily. Some cider guy comes and  picks  (free apples) in return for a few bottles etc   but most are left to rot.

 

Its amazing how much volume of apples a small orchard of  about 25  on trees on larger rootstock produces. Probalby  a few tonnes.... at least?

 

Can hardly see the ground in autum covered in fallers... like in this pic from the  internet...

 

 

Kind of beautiful if  also wasteful.

 

[Trailoftears]

I will take some piccies tomoz if poss-follow-up visit to deal with the absolute chaos of a large lawn area left strewn with God knows what volume of large apple tree branches by my good self-more work/time to process/burn the debris than pruning 2 large overgrown trees-aint it always the way!

[Trailoftears]

On 30/04/2023 at 11:28, Dan Maynard said:

I'd probably use the 36v Makita for 5" stems. 

Well to be honest I find it hard to love the mak.36v tools whether that be the traditional woodwork tools or the outdoor horti tools.One of the big issues with me is if I go battery over petrol,Is I expect a meaningful weight-saving advantage,which the 2 battery system kills.I've gone down the route of buying 5ah batteries when flush/also copies so just keep about 8 4/5 amp batts in my car when working.I did buy the 36v mak.tree surgery type saw and it dawned on me it was heavier/weaker than stihls cheapo petrol saw,so sold it straight on.For up in a big bramley tho, the little 18v mak duc 254 is perfect for removing the bulk of crowns followed up using the tiny petrol makita petrol to cut your way down logging as you go.But each to their own.I'm no tree surgeon/rope guy thats for sure,but in a big bramley crown as long as I start as high as the initial cut and travel down I'm happy enough.Getting the big top branches down/out is usually the major hassle I find!

[Peter 1955]

I have a 36v Makita saw, and love it to bits. Not used an 18v, but can't see it suiting me. None of the Makita battery saws are mighty enough for serious cutting/felling, but for pruning and tidying I love mine. For anything stop/start, batteries are hard to beat. 

[Trailoftears]

Glad you like them but the weight of 2 5amp batteries sucks the joy out of the battery experience for me.One honourable exception is the 36v makita leafblower given how it sucks up/needs the 2 batts,but then, you carry that weight with a vertical extended arm,so the extra weight of 2 batts is ok.Saying that,due to my peevishness with blowing down a 600 metre drive then finding I need fresh batteries (inevitably as far from the car as poss),Has led to me buying a little 4/ mak petrol blower!