Renovating old neglected Apple trees

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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby bbrilmyer » Sun Jul 07, 2013 2:32 pm

Great info! Alittle overwhelming at first but I will go through it again and break up the info. Just found the first Apple tree on my place that I never knew was there. Ended up being right on the edge of the foodplots and only started producing apples after clearing some of the trees from the plot. Good thing I didn't cut it down!

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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Tue Feb 16, 2016 6:56 am

:text-bump:
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:05 am

I used this info to prune trees shortly after you wrote this thread (circa 2011) and indeed the trees I worked on blossomed! :clap:

Thanks for the revisit!!! :dance:
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby Bigb » Sun Feb 28, 2016 3:11 am

My parents have one in their backyard that deer come to visit every fall. My dad is mixed about it because he hits a lot of apples with the lawn mower but it brings a lot of deer come September/October and we love to get them on trail camera. I'll be taking some of this advice come spring and get the tree a little healthier. I used to just cut the small branches that were fresh growth for the year that weren't going to bear fruit. I'll have to do it a little better this year.
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby Tufrthnails » Sun Feb 28, 2016 12:42 pm

I planted 2 golden delicious apple trees that I got from walmart because they were 50% off on 2/1/2016 so they are about 4 weeks in the ground they were about 6ft tall. And have gained about 6" since I planted and the leaves that are on the top branches are still green and look healthy so I am assuming the trees are going to make it I was unsure if they would or not being that we have gotten cold but not quite below freezing a couple times this month. So my question is how long do I just let them grow before I start pruning them. Do I let them grow all year and come back and prune next year at the end of winter. The pair of florida peach trees I got at the same time were bare of leaves and I just noticed today that I have a couple of young leaves growing on each of them so I am kinda happy it looks like they are going to make it past being planted. Also I planted them all 4 12ft apart from each other and 10 ft from the fence. I know I probably should have researched this stuff before actually planting but is that enough spacing? This whole thing was kind of a whim I seen them for sale on clearance and said hmmm I'd like some fruit trees on the property down the fence.
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Sun Feb 28, 2016 12:55 pm

What a great thread! I've saved quite a few over the years. The biggest issue I've encountered is sucker vines. They are easy to choke off, but hard to remove.
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Sun Feb 28, 2016 3:51 pm

Tufrthnails wrote:I planted 2 golden delicious apple trees that I got from walmart because they were 50% off on 2/1/2016 so they are about 4 weeks in the ground they were about 6ft tall. And have gained about 6" since I planted and the leaves that are on the top branches are still green and look healthy so I am assuming the trees are going to make it I was unsure if they would or not being that we have gotten cold but not quite below freezing a couple times this month. So my question is how long do I just let them grow before I start pruning them. Do I let them grow all year and come back and prune next year at the end of winter. The pair of florida peach trees I got at the same time were bare of leaves and I just noticed today that I have a couple of young leaves growing on each of them so I am kinda happy it looks like they are going to make it past being planted. Also I planted them all 4 12ft apart from each other and 10 ft from the fence. I know I probably should have researched this stuff before actually planting but is that enough spacing? This whole thing was kind of a whim I seen them for sale on clearance and said hmmm I'd like some fruit trees on the property down the fence.

Unless there are crossing limbs that are rubbing each other I wouldn't prune them until after they go dormant next year at the earliest. Just let them grow and get their roots established. When they are real young they don't need to be thinned out. You just want to get the basic shape/structure established and cut out any damaged, crossing or downward growing limbs.

Tree spacing depends mostly on the rootstock your trees are on, but it also depends on the variety. I'm guessing you would be OK on your distance from the fence because it allows for the tree to get up to 20' across before you have to worry about your neighbors, but you may have problems with them being only 12' apart. That only allows for 6' of growth out to the side before contacting the tree next to it. If you have a dwarfing rootstock you might be OK. Depending on how dwarfing it is, but if they are standard or maybe even a larger semi dwarf you may have to prune them a lot to keep them in check when they get older.
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby Tufrthnails » Sun Feb 28, 2016 4:13 pm

DEERSLAYER wrote:
Tufrthnails wrote:I planted 2 golden delicious apple trees that I got from walmart because they were 50% off on 2/1/2016 so they are about 4 weeks in the ground they were about 6ft tall. And have gained about 6" since I planted and the leaves that are on the top branches are still green and look healthy so I am assuming the trees are going to make it I was unsure if they would or not being that we have gotten cold but not quite below freezing a couple times this month. So my question is how long do I just let them grow before I start pruning them. Do I let them grow all year and come back and prune next year at the end of winter. The pair of florida peach trees I got at the same time were bare of leaves and I just noticed today that I have a couple of young leaves growing on each of them so I am kinda happy it looks like they are going to make it past being planted. Also I planted them all 4 12ft apart from each other and 10 ft from the fence. I know I probably should have researched this stuff before actually planting but is that enough spacing? This whole thing was kind of a whim I seen them for sale on clearance and said hmmm I'd like some fruit trees on the property down the fence.

Unless there are crossing limbs that are rubbing each other I wouldn't prune them until after they go dormant next year at the earliest. Just let them grow and get their roots established. When they are real young they don't need to be thinned out. You just want to get the basic shape/structure established and cut out any damaged, crossing or downward growing limbs.

Tree spacing depends mostly on the rootstock your trees are on, but it also depends on the variety. I'm guessing you would be OK on your distance from the fence because it allows for the tree to get up to 20' across before you have to worry about your neighbors, but you may have problems with them being only 12' apart. That only allows for 6' of growth out to the side before contacting the tree next to it. If you have a dwarfing rootstock you might be OK. Depending on how dwarfing it is, but if they are standard or maybe even a larger semi dwarf you may have to prune them a lot to keep them in check when they get older.



Cool thanks for the info. No branches are crossing. The neighbors are cool with the trees we removed a lot of trees off the fence because whoever owned his property before he did planted a row of trees literally 6" from the fence the oaks where growing into the fence and whatever the big shrubs are were eating the fence. now he has young citrus and alvacados all over his property but nothing closer then 30ft. A gave him a couple of young maples from off the creekline and they are growing pretty good for him on his part of the creekline. One question would you transplant 2 of the trees and risk them not making a second move or just leave them and keep them pruned?
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby Loppy » Sun Feb 28, 2016 5:45 pm

Wow! Thats a lot of information. I have an ancient apple tree on my land that has never been cared for. It still produces fruit but seems to be less than it used to be. Is it possible for it to be too old for pruning? Is it best to to take it slow and do a little every year or do a heavy pruning right away?

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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby Stanley » Sun Feb 28, 2016 5:59 pm

Good informative read.
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:07 am

Tufrthnails wrote:... One question would you transplant 2 of the trees and risk them not making a second move or just leave them and keep them pruned?

I would look for the tags to see what rootstock they are on to determine if they are spaced properly. Some rootstocks only allow the tree to get about 6' tall while some let them get to about 25'. There are other rootstocks that could limit a tree to anywhere in between. Coming from Walmart they would be potted so if they were good and healthy when you bought them you would probably be fine to transplant right now. It's a bit of a judgement call because it sounds like you have a little top growth going on and your ground is warm enough (over 40*) that you are getting some root growth. If you decide to transplant them next year when they are dormant dig at least 6" away from the original root ball. 12" would be better. If you had root circling from the pot, which is very common and you did not cut or pull the roots out so they were no longer circling once planted then I would probably just go for it and transplant now so you can take care of that while your at it.
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:17 am

Loppy wrote:Wow! Thats a lot of information. I have an ancient apple tree on my land that has never been cared for. It still produces fruit but seems to be less than it used to be. Is it possible for it to be too old for pruning? Is it best to to take it slow and do a little every year or do a heavy pruning right away?

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As long as it is healthy it should be fine to do as described here in this thread. If you are not comfortable and worried about shocking it too much because it is really old then only prune it about half as much as described here. Then after you see how it responds you will be more comfortable in knowing what to do and how much.
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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby Loppy » Mon Feb 29, 2016 9:45 am

DEERSLAYER wrote:
Loppy wrote:Wow! Thats a lot of information. I have an ancient apple tree on my land that has never been cared for. It still produces fruit but seems to be less than it used to be. Is it possible for it to be too old for pruning? Is it best to to take it slow and do a little every year or do a heavy pruning right away?

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As long as it is healthy it should be fine to do as described here in this thread. If you are not comfortable and worried about shocking it too much because it is really old then only prune it about half as much as described here. Then after you see how it responds you will be more comfortable in knowing what to do and how much.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think i will try pruning some this year and see how the tree reacts.
. I walked past today while scouting and looked at it. It has alot of suckers and broken branches that need attention. Probably a good starting point. I wish i would have taken some pictures of it for you to see.
Thanks Deerslayer

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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby Bow_Badger » Tue Mar 01, 2016 3:54 pm

Awesome read. Going to try some apple tree care this year.

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Re: Renovating old neglected Apple trees

Unread postby Tufrthnails » Tue Mar 01, 2016 6:54 pm

Slayer I checked the tags on my trees and actually grabbed a tape measure since I just used an the shovel to guestimate the distance between the trees (was more worried about them being spaced even. The apple trees say they will grow 12 to 15ft tall and 12 to 15 ft across and the peach say 20 to 25 ft tall and 20 to 25ft across. I taped it and I actually have 19ft between them yeah I don't know I must have laid the shovel down one more time then I was counting, but that should be good for the trees right? I may have to do some pruning on the Peach trees, but the Apples should be good at 19ft?
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