Pruning 1 year old apple trees???

14 years ago

thx in advance for any help

planted approx. 50 bare root stock apple trees last May. did no pruning except to trim off obviously damaged branches. (most of the trees were little more than a single stick)

A few have damage from deer but all grew well.

should the trees be pruned at all this year? I've seen some articles that talk about cutting away 1/3 of whatevers there which seems a lot to me.

mark in MN

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Comments (5)

eskota
14 years ago
Opinions vary- Some folks like to leave them scrubby for the first few years, then clean them up. Others go for removing or heading back all the laterals to get maximum growth out of the leader. You didn't mention how tall these young trees are. Remember that all the branches below 3 or 4' will get removed eventually, and you'll want well-spaced branches, 6 or 8" apart, with 45 degree angles from the trunk above that.

It won't hurt to prune up to 1/3 of the first year growth during dormancy (they've contributed their part to the root system already). It makes what you leave grow more strongly. I wouldn't cut back the leader or promising branches above 3'. Of course, get rid of every sprout from below the graft, those are bad.
alan haigh
14 years ago
I believe beginners are usually best served to remove only all branches that exceed 1/2 the diameter of the trunk at these branches point of attachment to the trunk and otherwise let the tree grow until it begins to bear fruit. That and broken and rubbing branches.

Only certain varieties that do not willingly produce adequate secondary branching are likely to benefit from heading back and in this case it's best to do the heading cuts in annual wood (wood that grew the previous year) after trees have begun to leaf out in mid spring. This is more likely to generate usable secondary branches as I understand it.

For the most vigorous varietes, like Fuji and Gala removing all branches exceeding 1/3 the diameter of the trunk is the best way to construct a well balanced, productive and early fruiting tree.

Excessively diametered branches always take longer to fruit and require more space to be fruitful because of their greater access to the root system. Kindof like the difference between standard trees and dwarfs, but on a branch. They are also prone to making weak unions to the trunk that can break when they come into bearing.

My recommendatins here are based on managing trees that are grafted on rootstocks at least as vigorous as M7 (semi-dwarf).

I first learned of the ratio method almost 20 years ago in an article written by Bas van den Ende in Pomona who at the time was managing thousands of commercial acres of pears and apples in the northwest (he's in Australia now and is a very famous orchard consultant). As I understand it, the practice of automatically heading back branches of establishing trees on most varieties has been abandoned for some time by expert orchard managers.

B. van dan Ende wrote a very interesting article about managing fruiting wood on pears in this months Good Fruit Grower magazine if anyones interested..
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cebury
14 years ago
My recommendatins here are based on managing trees that are grafted on rootstocks at least as vigorous as M7 (semi-dwarf).

Wow what great advice. The OP didn't state what rootstock and variety was used in his orchard. I don't want to entirely hijack his thread, but I have two quick questions. I assume MM106 is as vigorous as M7? What is the recommendation for 1 year on the brittle-root slower growing dwarf like M9?
alan haigh
14 years ago
I'm no expert on managing full dwarfs but as I understand it the greatest concerns are excessive pruning and excessive fruiting too early (causing trees to runt out). The ratio issues are different because you don't have to worry much about excessively vigorous branches and if you are going to support the branches not much worry about weak unions either. However to be assured of maintaining apical dominance in a central leader it is wise to remove all branches much more than about half the diameter of the trunk at point of attachment.
cebury
14 years ago
Thank you kindly harvestman.

Pruning 1 year old apple trees???

Comments (5)

eskota

alan haigh

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