Having a go at pruning fruit trees - anyone interested?

[agg221]

Brings back memories.

I spent the winter of 1984 pruning apple trees on my own just outside Swanley village.

Truth be told a lot of it was sitting in an apple tree watching them build the M25

 

Been pruning apples all day every day for the last 4 weeks, about 3 more weeks to go too.

 

How was that for a first post?

 

Hello and welcome to the forum! I can guess roughly where that must have been - I remember my Dad driving us to visit relatives in London at the time when the Swanley junction of the M25 was being built, and for some time there was a roundabout with most of the M25 bridge in the middle, not connected to anything.

 

What have you been pruning lately? I presume lots of centre-leader apples on M9?

 

Alec

[Peasgood]

Thanks for the welcome.

I was in Kent working for Albert Vinsons ltd as a sandwich year student. When asked if I had pruned apples before I foolishly said yes, I was then given the job. I think I pruned nearly all their apples at Swanley that year, mostly on my own.

I since came back home to Cheshire and have been growing apples ever after. The trees on my place were planted in the late 70's, quite a few by me even though I was only just a teenager.

I have 11 acres of mostly Cox and Bramley, all on MM106 and all grown as open centre bush. My son has been my only assistant this year so far and we are getting on well with the job. There are a nightmare amount of watershoots this year, mostly due to weather and the fact I didn't get chance to pull them in the early summer. Around 500 per tree, my hand hurts!

[agg221]

Ah, 'proper' trees! I like MM106 - takes a bit more work but very forgiving. 11 acres is a fair scale. I planted the smaller trees in Kent from the late '80s onwards, also as a teenager. I've planted a third of an acre at our place as a mixed smallholding type orchard for our own use. I propagated most of them from scratch over the past few years - I enjoy starting with stock and getting to the first fruit, very satisfying.

 

Alec

[Peasgood]

Growing apples is very satisfying, I like little more than being in the orchard. One of the most satisfying things is grafting the trees yourself. I did a few hundred last year and got 100% take, that gives you a big smile.

 

Fair play to you for letting other people cut bits off yours, I hate having others "help" with the pruning. My lad is pretty good but most are a bit clueless tbh. Having said that, even after 30+ years of it I still consider myself as learning.

 

Love the "black art" comments.

I consider apple tree pruning to be an art form as much as anything. If the tree don't look right you have got it wrong. A difficult one to teach as for me an awful lot is "you just know", the more you think about it the harder it gets.

 

A fella was once admiring a wonderful sculpture of a horse. He said to the sculptor in amazement, "how do you produce something so wonderful when all you start off with is a block of stone.

The sculptor replied "easy, you just knock off all the bits that don't look like a horse".

That is how I prune apple trees, just cut off all the bits that don't look right.

[Peasgood]

A before and after pic of one of mine.

All planted 18x24' so the canopy of that tree is 18' wide. framework branches are approximately chest height.

 

 

[Arob]

Just a little update, i've been a bit slow getting round to it as had been hoping to get some better pictures, however, having done this pruning work Alec (agg221) kindly sorted, labelled, wrapped and sent me a large parcel of scions (cuttings for grafting) of a dozen or more different varieties. Added to this i was able to obtain a few more from here and there which i used to run a grafting workshop and have a few spares left over to plant up and pass on.

 

In addition to the original course i was asked to run a second and then a third, the latter one being for a youth club. It's all gone really well and people have been really keen and quick to pick up the knack - even the youngsters - hopefully their grafts will take and their trees prosper.

 

In addition to the scions Alec provided some great advice, without his support this could not have turned out as well as it has. Grateful for this i'd like to contribute to continuing this goodwill as best i can by making scions available to fellow Arbtalk users in the years to come (naturally quantities will be a bit limited to begin with as trees establish).

 

The two ladies in the last picture are retired nurses, they came to learn to graft as they are planning to start a community orchard in their town, i don't remember what prompted it, however during the practical bit there was a lot of light-hearted conversation in the room, but it there came a momentary silence, and i took a nervous step back, when the lady standing up said, "...when your hands have performed as many circumcisions as these hands..."

We all went home having learned something that day!