Apple Tree Pruning
Pruning is necessary for good health and production of any fruit crop. Apple trees in particular love pruning and actually are stimulated to grow more and produce more fruit when pruning is done. More added benefits are less disease and insect pressure on the tree. This is due to better air movement yielding faster faster drying leaves in the morning sun or after a rain shower.
Points to ponder while pruning Apple Trees:
1. Understand where the fruit is going to be growing from.
2. Training with ties and string is good but pruning correctly will do a very similar job with all the benefits.
3. What goes up must come down; what goes down must come off.
4. Every cut you make will stimulate growth; learn where the growth will occur so you can use the growth to train the tree.
5. You are going to prune next year so do a good job this year to make it easier for next year. If not enough wood is removed the branches will become long and 'leggy' spreading the tree out too far.
Explanation of Fruiting Wood: (Where does the fruit grow from?)
Apples fruit on second year wood. This means the wood that grew 2 summers ago will produce fruit this year. This is crucial for the first-time pruner to understand. If you go around the tree and shape it into a beautiful landscape tree in your front yard much of the fruit will be cut off. "Shaping" the tree will in essence shorten each branch and hold it where it was last year. This answers your question, "where are all my apples?". The reason is two fold. The growth this year will not fruit. Second by cutting off all the new growth on the outer edges of the tree you will eventually after 3-4 years have a 'beautiful' rounded tree that is shaded inside. The shade causes the tree to stop producing fruit inside and you are not letting it grow on the outer edges.
The answer is to make big cuts every year and let a younger branch grow out with minimal cutting. This concept is gets applied several ways depending on what 'style' of training system you are using.
An apple tree will fruit on older wood also BUT the second thing to remember is light is required to initiate fruit buds. The initiation of fruit buds is in August. This is the kicker. The only way to get a great crop of fruit is to have the tree pruned hard enough to allow light to penetrate the canapy and reach the branches of the tree.
more coming soon