Derek Reese 29
5 year old buck +
taking all the branches won't hurt the tree? I feel like that's alot of damage to be doing after only being in the ground 1 year? (I know the tree is older than 1 year but still...)
Help me choose - pruning advice
- Thread starter Knehrke
- Start date
Wild Thing
5 year old buck +
That is why you should begin training a tree the same day it is planted IMO. I remove several branches on day 1 - especially those lower branches, and then maybe a competing leader. By late summer I will remove a few more, once again - especially the lower branches and then maybe a few scaffold branches I know I wont be keeping. In the spring I prune it back some more. By the end of the second growing season the tree will be pretty much what I want it to look like - a central leader with 4 or 5 main scaffolds.
A good rule of thumb is to try not to remove more than 25% of the tree at any one time. You can safely remove that much of a young apple tree without stressing it too much…and you can do it twice per year under good conditions. My goal is to train the tree to what it should look like at maturity as quickly as possible. Why allow the tree to use up nutrients to grow branches that you know you will not want to keep? Remove them ASAP so those nutrients can go to the part of the tree that you do want to keep.
PatinPA
5 year old buck +
I put this in another pruning Forum but this one seems to be a little more active.
The tree had fungus right in the crotch of the branches at the bottom of the pic. I gouged it out the best I could. Do you think it'll be ok or should I just chop it off and hope the nub resprouts?
I cut a little path for any water to run out and not pool and cause rot.
The tree had fungus right in the crotch of the branches at the bottom of the pic. I gouged it out the best I could. Do you think it'll be ok or should I just chop it off and hope the nub resprouts?
I cut a little path for any water to run out and not pool and cause rot.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
My opinion, a heavy fruit load will make that thing split. You usually only want 1 main branch.
Buckly
5 year old buck +
Couple things. First, I think it’s a good idea to get some stakes on those trees. It will help support them and train them as they grow and will eventually help support fruit Loads. I use 10 ft electrical conduit. 1 inch diameter. Put in with hand pounder or even a heavy hammer about 3 ft in the ground. Second. I see you’re nervous about the trimming. It’s really what you want the tree to look like in a few years. Most people don’t really want lower limbs like that. Also, remember that taking them off now when they are so small has a lot less stress and repairing to do over taking them off later when the limbs are much bigger. Right now it’s just a quick snip with a pruner. Later it’s saw work and a bigger open area to heal on the tree. I can only give you my opinion but, I don’t think taking off that much on that small a tree will hurt it at all. Really it will help it. All those buds above the limbs will turn into the new limbs. good luck with them.
PatinPA
5 year old buck +
It's a plum, if that makes a difference.
Derek Reese 29
5 year old buck +
Update: got all but a few trees pruned last night..based on suggestions on this forum, pruned most (if not all) of the lower limbs on the trees and even some smaller upper limbs.
See below for a pic of the pear that had been perplexing me...
![IMG_5800[1].JPG](https://habitat-talk.com/data/attachments/41/41563-c3b695547da4c44b64ed92ea8d55528f.jpg "IMG_5800[1].JPG")
For the next picture, just wondering what I should do? This is a virginia/hewes crab that didn't grow alot vertically since being planted in March 2021. Thanks for the help!
![IMG_5799[1].JPG](https://habitat-talk.com/data/attachments/41/41564-3587e6372211713e0f6678f80c1b8442.jpg "IMG_5799[1].JPG")
Onto frost seeding...
See below for a pic of the pear that had been perplexing me...
For the next picture, just wondering what I should do? This is a virginia/hewes crab that didn't grow alot vertically since being planted in March 2021. Thanks for the help!
Onto frost seeding...
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Derek -
I'd also prune off the left side, and as Mortenson said, stake the right side upright so it wants to grow upwards. Trees want to seek the sun, so help "point it" in the straight upward direction. Stakes can correct YOUNG, flexible crooked trees and help support them into a straighter central leader.
Note the right side is more aligned with the trunk below than the left side is. (at least in the pic)
I'd also prune off the left side, and as Mortenson said, stake the right side upright so it wants to grow upwards. Trees want to seek the sun, so help "point it" in the straight upward direction. Stakes can correct YOUNG, flexible crooked trees and help support them into a straighter central leader.
Note the right side is more aligned with the trunk below than the left side is. (at least in the pic)
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
For any here that don't know much about apple tree pruning, I'll offer just a couple thoughts. (This will be old news to long-time regulars here.)
When any of us talk of pruning off the lower limbs as the tree grows, it's to "raise the canopy" above where deer can reach so they don't break the lowest limbs - damaging your tree(s). Many guys strive to make their lowest limbs 5 ft. above ground for that reason. Some of us with bears may try to have our lowest limbs at 6 ft. above ground or higher to avoid young bears just reaching up for the heck of it. But the pruning of lower limbs is done in stages, a few each year to avoid removing so much leaf surface that the trees get stressed. Leaf surfaces = food factories for the trees.
I've followed the advice of several university professors and some veteran orchard guys on here with our own apple and crab trees, which is - each year prune off the lowest limbs until you get to the finished height you want your lowest limbs to be.
The second part of shaping your apple trees for years of fruit production is training the limbs to have wide crotch angles, which are much stronger than narrow crotch angles. This is done easily by placing a spring-type clothes pin immediately above new, baby limb shoots that sprout off the trunk (leader). The clothes pin forces the new, tender limb sprout to grow outward first - establishing a wider crotch angle as it grows. Wider crotch angles will better be able to support fruit loads as the trees bear fruit. Narrow crotch angles under fruit loads will most likely sag and eventually break from the weight. Same with wet snow or ice weight. Training your apple trees while they're young to establish the "framework" of your trees is much easier than trying to re-hab bigger trees later on.
If you think of your "scaffold" limbs (the main, heavier, fruit-supporting ones) as rungs on a ladder, you don't want them too close. Most sources recommend spacing the scaffold limbs 18" to 24" apart to promote good air flow and sunlight getting into the tree's interior (helps with disease prevention and fruit budding). A thick, dense canopy doesn't dry out well after rains or dew. The lack of air flow and sunlight make it easier for disease to set up camp in your trees.
MOST pruning advice out there is for commercial orchards that make their living from the trees. I asked the head of Penn State's fruit tree dept. if we need to be that fussy about yearly pruning for maintenance on WILDLIFE TREES. He said we can maintenance-prune WILDLIFE TREES every other year or two, unlike what commercial orchards do. He advised pruning out damaged, dead, or diseased limbs whenever we find them, however.
These tips are from real experts - NOT me. I just pass them along since the experts' advice has worked well for our camp trees. The first steps are always the scariest!!
When any of us talk of pruning off the lower limbs as the tree grows, it's to "raise the canopy" above where deer can reach so they don't break the lowest limbs - damaging your tree(s). Many guys strive to make their lowest limbs 5 ft. above ground for that reason. Some of us with bears may try to have our lowest limbs at 6 ft. above ground or higher to avoid young bears just reaching up for the heck of it. But the pruning of lower limbs is done in stages, a few each year to avoid removing so much leaf surface that the trees get stressed. Leaf surfaces = food factories for the trees.
I've followed the advice of several university professors and some veteran orchard guys on here with our own apple and crab trees, which is - each year prune off the lowest limbs until you get to the finished height you want your lowest limbs to be.
The second part of shaping your apple trees for years of fruit production is training the limbs to have wide crotch angles, which are much stronger than narrow crotch angles. This is done easily by placing a spring-type clothes pin immediately above new, baby limb shoots that sprout off the trunk (leader). The clothes pin forces the new, tender limb sprout to grow outward first - establishing a wider crotch angle as it grows. Wider crotch angles will better be able to support fruit loads as the trees bear fruit. Narrow crotch angles under fruit loads will most likely sag and eventually break from the weight. Same with wet snow or ice weight. Training your apple trees while they're young to establish the "framework" of your trees is much easier than trying to re-hab bigger trees later on.
If you think of your "scaffold" limbs (the main, heavier, fruit-supporting ones) as rungs on a ladder, you don't want them too close. Most sources recommend spacing the scaffold limbs 18" to 24" apart to promote good air flow and sunlight getting into the tree's interior (helps with disease prevention and fruit budding). A thick, dense canopy doesn't dry out well after rains or dew. The lack of air flow and sunlight make it easier for disease to set up camp in your trees.
MOST pruning advice out there is for commercial orchards that make their living from the trees. I asked the head of Penn State's fruit tree dept. if we need to be that fussy about yearly pruning for maintenance on WILDLIFE TREES. He said we can maintenance-prune WILDLIFE TREES every other year or two, unlike what commercial orchards do. He advised pruning out damaged, dead, or diseased limbs whenever we find them, however.
These tips are from real experts - NOT me. I just pass them along since the experts' advice has worked well for our camp trees. The first steps are always the scariest!!
Knehrke
5 year old buck +
Wow! That's an apple bush. I've seen a couple of those that produce tons of fruit, though, and isn't that the objective? We trimmed one of the two properties, where the trees have been in the ground for two years now. They were still relatively small and only required some lower branch removal and, on some where they'd been topped at the nursery, trimming back to a single central leader.
There's still a bit too much snow and ice to get around on the other property, but with it hitting 70 today, I suspect that later this week those trees will get shaved too. They're a bit older and hence trickier to deal with - that's where the tree at the start of this thread is - I will update once she's pruned.
There's still a bit too much snow and ice to get around on the other property, but with it hitting 70 today, I suspect that later this week those trees will get shaved too. They're a bit older and hence trickier to deal with - that's where the tree at the start of this thread is - I will update once she's pruned.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
No idea. Sorry.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I guess my prunning would be to trim the bottom outside layers off, just to make it able to mow around, then clean the inside branches a little. That will never be a normal looking tree, but if it is producing now, that is the ultimate goal. Just make it bearable to mow around, and make it so apples can actually have room to grow in the inside part, and you can reach for them with out poking out an eye, then live with it.If you guys really want a challenge check out these pictures I got from a friend last night asking me what to do with this tree. Where do you even start…..View attachment 41761View attachment 41762
If it isnt producing, thin it way back, leave just a couple bigger branches in the middle, that hopefully aim upwards, then trim new water sprouts from it during the summer.
I can tell you how my bear would trim it back, but you may as well just drop a car on it. You could also invite deer in the yard, and they would trim it back as well.
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Telemark
5 year old buck +
If you guys really want a challenge check out these pictures I got from a friend last night asking me what to do with this tree. Where do you even start…..
Cut off anything touching the ground or growing downward toward the ground. Maybe thin out the middle a bit.
Is it producing apples?
BuckSnort
5 year old buck +
Story I got was they just bought the place this year. The tree did have apples on it. I sent them some videos along with a list of “standard order of removal” tips to start with and go from there.
