Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


mermatt83
Posts: 51
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 3:34 pm
Status: Offline

Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby mermatt83 » Mon Feb 15, 2016 6:13 pm

If you live in a part of the country that gets nice and cold (I'm in NY) Feb is the IDEAL time to do heavy pruning and/or rejuvenation on most trees and shrubs, including apples, pears, crabapples, etc. Apple trees want lots of sunlight penetration and air circulation to produce, so make openings in their canopy and take lots of branches out of the interior of your trees so they can 'breathe.' A healthy tree/shrub can have 1/4 to 1/3 of its living tissue removed this time of year without stressing it. If a tree is not healthy, make some major cuts, but back off a bit in the amount of living growth you remove. Top priorities for pruning in order of removal are 1) Dead/damaged limbs 2) crossing and rubbing branches 3) water suckers (those thin shoots that go straight up) and then cuts for air circulation and sunlight penetration. For Apple bearing, try to prune to lateral shoots, as those tend to bear fruit better than vertical ones. Please feel free to ask me specific or general questions. I've been working as a gardener/landscaper for 14 years now and have a good amount of horticultural know-how that I'm happy to share. I'm not an expert farmer and don't have a ton of orchard experience, but pruning is one of my specialties and I'd love to help any of u guys out who have questions. Also the WWW is a great resource, obviously...

[ Post made via iPad ] Image


User avatar
ozzz
Posts: 2189
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 4:27 am
Location: Your spot
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby ozzz » Mon Feb 15, 2016 11:36 pm

How do you feel about double lead leaders for Apple trees?

[ Post made via Android ] Image
If it bleeds, we can kill it . . . .
mermatt83
Posts: 51
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 3:34 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby mermatt83 » Tue Feb 16, 2016 1:08 am

I know that there are tons of varieties of apple trees, so one answer probably won't fit all. I would say a lot depends on habitat, exposure and what the crotch angle between those leaders looks like. If they form a narrow, steep angle between each other (the two leaders), that is a very weak spot that could easily split and fail some day under the weight of snow, ice or apples. Also a tight angle between competing leaders can lead to issues with air circulation and light penetration. If you have multiple, spread out leaders with good, sturdy, wide crotch angles, that can be ok. Another factor would be competing canopies. If there are already a good amount of trees hogging the apple tree 's sunlight, decide what form wil best capture sunlight for your apple tree.

[ Post made via iPad ] Image
cedarsavage
500 Club
Posts: 1137
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2015 4:42 am
Facebook: No facebook
Location: Michigan
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby cedarsavage » Tue Feb 16, 2016 2:35 am

ozzz wrote:How do you feel about double lead leaders for Apple trees?

[ Post made via Android ] Image

What is this?

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image
User avatar
ozzz
Posts: 2189
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 4:27 am
Location: Your spot
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby ozzz » Tue Feb 16, 2016 2:48 am

Typically a central leader is traimed for an apple tree and everything comes off that. I sometimes do two main leaders.

[ Post made via Android ] Image
If it bleeds, we can kill it . . . .
User avatar
Hawthorne
500 Club
Posts: 6217
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2014 2:13 pm
Location: michigan
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby Hawthorne » Tue Feb 16, 2016 2:57 am

On one of my old properties I probably found 15-20 wild apple trees covered in canopy, no air space, and alot of dead wood. They needed to be released. So I trimmed out around all of them, pruned like mermatt said. I even put fertilizer spikes around a few in key locations that I think helps. I ended having a bunch of producing apples and what I found is alot of them had different drop times. Some would be done in September others would hold till November.

[ Post made via Android ] Image
User avatar
Mathewshooter
Posts: 372
Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 4:10 am
Location: Central NY
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby Mathewshooter » Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:27 am

Great thread! I have an apple tree in my back yard that only produces a few apples each year. I bought the house in 2012 so I've only been here a few years. The tree does have a bunch of branches and doesnt look like it was ever pruned. I'll give this a try and see how it works. Whats the maximum size branches I should be trimming? My tree just kinda grows straight up with alot of branches in the middle. Its kinda shaped like a teepee.
Last edited by Mathewshooter on Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
I take my Bowhunting seriously
User avatar
ozzz
Posts: 2189
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 4:27 am
Location: Your spot
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby ozzz » Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:34 am

Hawthorne wrote:On one of my old properties I probably found 15-20 wild apple trees covered in canopy, no air space, and alot of dead wood. They needed to be released. So I trimmed out around all of them, pruned like mermatt said. I even put fertilizer spikes around a few in key locations that I think helps. I ended having a bunch of producing apples and what I found is alot of them had different drop times. Some would be done in September others would hold till November.

[ Post made via Android ] Image


That spread out drop time is ideal!

[ Post made via Android ] Image
If it bleeds, we can kill it . . . .
mermatt83
Posts: 51
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 3:34 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby mermatt83 » Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:18 am

Mathewshooter wrote:Great thread! I have an apple tree in my back yard that only produces a few apples each year. I bought the house in 2012 so I've only been here a few years. The tree does have a bunch of branches and doesnt look like it was ever pruned. I'll give this a try and see how it works. Whats the maximum size branches I should be trimming? My tree just kinda grows straight up with alot of branches in the middle. Its kinda shaped like a teepee.


Open it up!!! Don't worry about the size of the branches you take out, more importantly make sure that you watch how much total volume of the tree's living tissue you remove. Pruning is the art/science of balancing right now with the future. In an ideal world, you want to be leaving branches that will be able to mature and bear fruit and removing those which will not work out. A very important note: if you do remove large branches/limbs, make sure that the next branch you cut to is at least 1/3 the size of the one you're removing. Otherwise, the branch you leave won't be big enough to resume all the energy and nutrients the tree sends there and will result in unproductive suckering like crazy from that spot.

[ Post made via iPad ] Image
User avatar
DEERSLAYER
Super Moderator
Posts: 8352
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:22 pm
Location: Western L.P. of MI
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:20 am

I think the best time to trim your tree for maximum growth is after the bitter cold is gone, but before bud swell. You can trim it anytime while dormant if your not able get to it at that time of year though. Waiting until the bitter cold is gone reduces the chance of any damage to the cut areas from extreme temperatures. It's not usually a problem for most people though. If you want to slow down the growth some then trim anytime you get a chance during the summer. Cut off water sprouts any time you see them.

ozzz wrote:Typically a central leader is traimed for an apple tree and everything comes off that. I sometimes do two main leaders.

[ Post made via Android ] Image

Generally speaking you don't want a double leader. You get a stronger more productive tree with a single central leader.
You cannot invade mainland America. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.
Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese Admiral
User avatar
DEERSLAYER
Super Moderator
Posts: 8352
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:22 pm
Location: Western L.P. of MI
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:24 am

BTW, I bumped up an old thread on pruning apple trees for anyone that is interested.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6365
You cannot invade mainland America. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.
Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese Admiral
mermatt83
Posts: 51
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 3:34 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Rejuvenate your fruit trees now!

Unread postby mermatt83 » Tue Feb 16, 2016 1:40 pm

DEERSLAYER wrote:BTW, I bumped up an old thread on pruning apple trees for anyone that is interested.
http://www.thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6365


Just went to your thread, Deerslayer. That's perfect. We should delete my thread and just bump that one. That's what people who are interested in apple pruning need to read. Well assembled and logical stream of information. Nicely done.


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bonecrusher101, Google [Bot], mspaci and 94 guests