"Feathers are the small branches with wide crotch angles on the nursery stock at planting. You need a nursery tree with 10-12 feathers at planting. At least if you want the early production needed for early payback. Hangers and risers are branches hanging down or growing up from a scafold. At least that's my understanding." Just as our fruitnut said. 'nut, a tree that is ten feet across, or even eight feet across is not that narrow. At least not to me. And yes, when you remove a scaffold you cut it back to a one or two inch stub so that it will send out a new shoot that will become a scaffold. Scaffolds come off the CL at a hoped for right angle. Leaving that stub is the hardest thing for a pruner to do. They all want to cut it off entirely. Even after doing it for a day or two they will revert. You want all of these scaffolds as they are not long and the ones in the top are short, maybe not more than a foot long. So not much shade. I do almost no pruning until the tree starts to bear. But some tying down would be good. glib, I grow Gingergold, Pinklady, Rome. This method is not used on the Rome. Actually all three of those are tip bearers and I prefer plain CL on them. I did grow Fuji using this method and have since 1982 or 85? Just pulling out the last of the Fuji. I have always called this method the French Axe. It works very well on Gala or Golden or Jonagold or anything that isn't an extreme tip bearer. IMHO I don't have curculio or maggot. Or chickens for that matter. Reading these posts I know that my growing conditions are much easier than those of you who grow back east. I do have neighbors, however.

These are all very interesting. The Cornell information explains a lot. The french site appears to break the pruning methods by rootstock/tree size, but I like the looks of the M106 rootstock type. Still, the others have some interesting features. The lattice look on dwarves is very attractive, but must be terrible work to maintain. I will probably go with pruning towards a vase shape. Other than some fireblight, disease really isn't a problem, although we like to feed birds in the winter and have a lot of english sparrows, house finches, and gold finches. The house finches and sparrows seem to really enjoy digging into the apples. I haven't been able to convince any of the cats to take up residence in the trees, though. Maybe I can hang rubber mice in the trees? Ha! As a side note, these birds seem to enjoy eating the buds off my blue plum trees in the winter. The plum they like to roost in is nearly stripped clean in the spring and has only scattered blossoms, mostly on lower branches. I always have some sunburn on the apples on the south side of the trees but it isn't really a problem and doesn't appear to do any more damage than to hurt the eye-appeal of the apple. I was concerned that maybe there was some production or ease of care advantage with central leader systems that I just couldn't figure out. When trying to maintain a smaller size to a tree that wants to grow, do you periodically take out one of the scaffolds or cut it back severely to spur newer growth lower down (then train one of the new shoots that come out as a replacement scaffold)? Otherwise, it seems that eventually you would end up pruning branches back to roughly the same place every year and have a tree that looks like it is on steroids--big, thick limbs, no smaller fruiting branches?

Hi Afss- I am by no means an expert here, and so I'm not sure if what I did is advisable. By going to 90 degrees as you see in my pic linked above, I may have over done it. I use two methods to train my branches: Simply tie the branch to the base of the tree, (or a stake on the ground if you have to) using green jute twine from your local hardware store or garden shop. If you are tying it to a stake on the ground, be sure you are not going to trip over it, or hit it with a lawnmower wheel, etc. I'm not worried about your tripping, etc, but rather that you'll pull over the tree. I tie a bowline so I know it wonÂt girdle the branch. I use wooden clothespins (the ones with springs)... on my very young trees, but not in the way that everyone else does. I now know that people put them just above a newly forming branch to help push it down (so the clothespin is closed around the central leader, on top of the newly forming branch). When I first heard about people using clothespins, I thought you actually hang them on the new branch. And, thatÂs what I did. They act as slight little weights that pull things down. ItÂs very easy to train to 90 degrees, or whatever angle you want with these little weights (and then I use the jute twine to move them horizontally where I want them). IÂve seen them make a slightly darker spot on the branch, but the day after I move the clothespin, the dark spot is gone. At the diameter of branch that IÂm working with, the clothespin doesnÂt actually tighten around the branch but rather itÂs still a little loose and you could actually slide the clothespin until you hit the next leaf-stem. IÂve never girdled a branch with a clothespin. But, it does require a little maintenance at first sometimes adding a clothespin here, taking one off there as the branch moves to the desired crotch angle. Obviously, this only works with new growth. IÂm not sure if all of this is advisable, but it works fine for me. Can anyone think of any disadvantages here? IÂve never actually used limb spacers. I think limb-spacers often have nails in the ends of them to hold them to the tree correct? I used to be a little nervous about that. I also wonder if you would need to move a branch in steps with a limb spacer, where as a clothespin offers a constant pull. As for the pruning, IÂm afraid IÂm probably not qualified to answer. But for me, I just wait until the end of winter to do the pruning. I havenÂt had a lot of winter damage. Good luck! -Glenn

I've had the Bosch 500 DLX (WFVC6450UC) since Oct 2009. I also have been selling appliances since 1995. Here are a couple of things I know.... All Bosch Vision dyrers have reverse tumble - this helps clothes not get stuck in the middle and come out slightly damp when the cycle is over. They are low in temp - max temp at 140, delicate temp is 120. With a higher air flow (280 cfm), drying results are more gentle than other brands. Less heat equals less fabric damage, less shrinking, and less color fading. This is like a bigger version of a European compact dryer (Asko, Bosch, Miele) If you can buy the WFVC6450UC or WFVC4400UC with the "drum sanitize" option try to do so. These are only available at the independents. This cycle will run for 90 mins at 175 degrees. Run it once a month (no clothes) and it will break down all the soap scrud and residue. I don't know of any other mfg that does this. The Exxtra Sanitary cycle is amazing at cleaning whites, towels, sheets, dish rags, etc. 150 degree temp maintained during entire wash portion of cycle, and a 171 degree boost for 4 minutes to kill bacteria. I think Bosch service is better also. More established network of service providers and better parts distribution. Hopefully Bosch will keep parts for 10-15 years for the Vision and Nexxt full-size laundry units. They will still be making the smaller Axxis models going forward. If it matters at all, they are made in the USA.