Apple tree pruning advice

[wrekin tree care]

just been asked to do some fruit tree prunning and just thought i would ask peoples advice on this. i know i covered it in my college courses but kind of forgot it now. many thanks

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

leave all the fluffy buds (friut) and prune out new growth to two pointy buds (green growth) fruit grows on 2 year old wood and older. apply these rules and shape accordingly to desired form

[Joy Yeomans]

ditto - and a goblet affect can help - open to allow air flow, reduce disease etc.

[Gollum]

First look at the way the tree has been trained in the first place, is it delayed open centre or centre leader?

Then variety, are they tip bearers or stem bearers?

Have they been previously spur pruned or replacement pruned?

Strong upright shoots do not produce fruit.

Weaker brindles and dards do.

How long have the trees been left without pruning,

if the trees have little one years growth they will need pruning harder to promote new growth.

[Mark Bolam]

Avoid it.

 

It's a PITA and takes exactly 17.5x longer than you think it would.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

First look at the way the tree has been trained in the first place, is it delayed open centre or centre leader?

Then variety, are they tip bearers or stem bearers?

Have they been previously spur pruned or replacement pruned?

Strong upright shoots do not produce fruit.

Weaker brindles and dards do.

How long have the trees been left without pruning,

if the trees have little one years growth they will need pruning harder to promote new growth.

 

and gollum would know:thumbup1:

 

though a less technicaly termed response may be more helpfull?

[Gollum]

and gollum would know:thumbup1:

 

though a less technicaly termed response may be more helpfull?

 

Thank you Tony,

yes I see what you mean, when I get time I will try and write an easy to follow guide.

[agg221]

I don't tend to use Tony's approach (spur pruning) as it tends to limit tree life and, unless this is a true commercial orchard, usually people prefer to have the tree than maximise yield. It also means no crop if the variety happens to be a tip bearer. I therefore tend to use renewal pruning. This has other advantages in being compatible with both spur and tip bearing types, without change in method, and although it looks a bit more scruffy it is also easier (to a certain point overcoming Mark Bolam's point that it will always take 17.5x longer than you think).

 

In renewal pruning, the aim is to have a more-or-less permanent scaffold of branches, about half a dozen or so, evenly(ish) spaced around the trunk and roughly in a goblet shape. For a dwarf tree (up to 8ft of permanent scaffold), there only really wants to be one layer of these branches. In a large tree there can be several tiers of branches, spaced vertically 3ft apart. Everything smaller is temporary. The aim is to work on a 3yr cycle: Shoot grows out, crops yrs 2 and 3, end of which you chop the whole thing off, back to the 1yr old shoot nearest the main scaffold and the cycle starts again. If there isn't a conveniently placed 1yr old shoot, your choices are to chop the 3yr old branch right off and hope something sprouts, chop it hard back (6in stub) and hope something sprouts, or if you really can't affort to risk it, treat it like a mini-reduction and take it back to something definitely live, taking the rest out next year when something has sprouted.

 

And that's about it. Leave a mini-branch every foot or so along the scaffold and away you go.

 

Other aspects are too specific to the tree and situation to provide much generic comment. Start by cleaning everything off the trunk, below where the branches start, chop out any suckers, dead wood, diseased wood (particularly look for canker and either remove or trim back to non-browned bark in the cambium line). Take out anything crossing and try to leave the tree such that you can clearly see right through it when the leaves are off.

 

Alec

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Spur pruning has done me no wrong thus far, in fact, when I return for the fifth year running i will do a thread on three of the biggest spur pruned apples youll ever see.

 

Was unaware of tip fruiting varieties, tell me more guys.

[agg221]

Spur pruning has done me no wrong thus far, in fact, when I return for the fifth year running i will do a thread on three of the biggest spur pruned apples youll ever see.

 

 

Spur pruning is unlikely to do much harm as such, over an extended time period (depends on vigour of the rootstock but could be 50yrs+). It's a very established technique. Observation (e.g. at Wisley and East Malling) does, however, indicate that it does eventually lead to decline, whereas renewal pruning tends to be better for preserving trees indefinitely. I can't remember exactly what the hypothesis is as to why, but suspect it's related to the way in which the growth is removed. There are some really good illustrations in an Ancient Tree Forum article, that show how a renewal pruned tree looks (it's their recommended technique):

 

http://frontpage.woodland-trust.org.uk/ancient-tree-forum/atfscapes/images/RestoringFruitTrees.pdf

 

Was unaware of tip fruiting varieties, tell me more guys.

 

Most apple varieties produce fruit buds at the base of a 1yr old shoot. When this grows it produces a cluster of flowers and a wood bud behind that extends the spur year on year. Some varieties don't produce this spur bud - instead they produce their fruit buds further up the 1yr old shoot, nearer the tip. As such, if you trim them back as per spur pruning you cut off all the flower buds. Most tip bearing varieties are actually partial tip bearers and will eventually form spurs as the tree matures, but if you rely on this you wait a very long time for a crop! Partial tip bearers include Bramley, Granny Smith, Blenheim Orange and Worcester Pearmain.

 

Alec