How much to nip back apple's last year's growth?

17 years ago

In the discussions about summer vs. dormant pruning I realize I don't even know all the terms correctly.

I am in the habit, whether right or wrong, of cutting the last year's growth on my apple back about 50% during the dormant season.

I've always called that "pruning". But is it? I've started thinking of "Pruning" as removing branches to open or shape the tree, or to control size. BUT, I'm also thinking that the summer removal of small amounts of new leafy growth to control size and bushiness is also called pruning.

I needed to raise that question to make sure I'm asking my real question correctly. I plan to cut back last year's growth on my apple. My goal is to encourage the branch to become heavier in girth, i.e., to discourage legginess, and to encourage fruiting on grafted parts. The tree seems to have settled in at its current size, about 10 feet tall, so I don't feel the need to control for size.

A subsidiary issue is that there are a dozen varieties grafted to this Liberty: Gala, Fuji, Macoun, Montana Red, Sweet Sixteen, Yellow Delicious, Prairie Spy, Supreme, Haralson, Stayman Winesap, Rhode Island Greening, Unknown Old Tree In Country, State Fair, many several years old. Only the Gala and the Delicious have ever fruited, but the Liberty is a prolific bearer. I need to encourage fruiting on my grafts, but not on the Liberty.

I am so confused I'm just sitting on my hands. Should I cut back last year's growth now, this summer, or not at all? Does the degree of heading-back control what happens in the branch that's left, and how?

And Don, I promise not to argue with you if you give me advice! In fact, I'll probably even follow it.

Thanks to all for any help you care to offer.

Mark

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Comments (4)

squeeze
17 years ago
pruning is removing unwanted portions from a plant [even removing deadwood] - any cutting you do, regardless of season - if you want to encourage vigorous new growth prune when dormant, if you want to maintain balance and control size [of individual varieties, to prevent dominance], prune in the growing season

not sure you can "encourage girth", that's more a function of age and position on the tree, and you can't "discourage" legginess, which is just a result of uncontrolled vigorous growth, but you can remove it in the summer which won't encourage it's immediate return as winter pruning will

which is to say, you may want to prune some of your varieties in the winter, to stimulate more vigorous growth, and prune the Liberty motherstock in summer to better keep it slowed down

opinions will vary I'm sure, and your results will be different than anyone elses here :)

Bill
nwl_me
17 years ago
When you write that you cut back 50% of last years growth every year, do you mean that you cut half of the new branches off or do you mean that you cut all of the tips off of last years growth?

If the latter and you cut all of the tips off, that may be why you're not getting any fruit from certain varieties. A lot of apples are tip bearers and bloom from the tips of last year's new growth. A lot of tip-bearers bloom from the tips of new growth, also. A lot of spur-bearers also grow the spurs from the tips, also, though not all spur-bearers do. And then there's the trees that bloom on both spurs and tips. If I were you, I would look up each variety to find out how it blooms, and prune to that standard. Tip bearers are pruned so that after a few years, you should have a high number of tips per main branch.
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geraldo
17 years ago
Cut into the two year or older wood in order to stiffen a branch (and increase girth, as you call it) cut into current season growth to induce the branch to continue to grow. A fifty percent cut will encourage the branch to continue to grow and will also make it spur up. The more you cut back the current year's growth the more it will regrow and spur up less. I like to almost not prune a tree at all (just spread branches) until it has fruit and then cut back into the two or three year old wood.
marknmt
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks to you all for the help.

Nwl, I mean that I cut all the new growth back to about 1/2 its length, so yes, that could be a factor. Thank you. It appears from what Geraldo says that I should be getting at least some spurs by now. (The varieties I'm dealing with are primarily spur-bearers.)

I'm beginning to suspect that I've thinned too heavily in my dormant pruning and now is time to let the tree be for a season or two, except for very minor work. Tipping it back is probably fine, more than that might not be called for just now.

Thanks Bill, for the suggestion about pruning the different areas differently- exactly what I have to do.

Thanks and good luck,

Mark

How much to nip back apple's last year's growth?

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How much to nip back apple's last year's growth?

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squeeze

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