I need to prune

[SD51555]

On my last leg around MN, I stopped at the family place and snapped some pics of my early habitat work. From all of it, it seems I have some much needed pruning to do this fall.

This first is an apple tree I planted in 2008. It has finally outgrown it's cage, so I took it off today. Our deer pop is low if not extinct out here. I'm not too worried about browse damage.


Another apple. I'm not sure what variety this is. It's either a snowsweet or a chestnut crab. I tried to plant a chestnut on each end of this project to ensure pollination. To this point, they haven't pollinated.


I tube pretty much everything except conifers. I'm not 100% certain all is going to work out well, but I try many species in small quantities to test them. The pic below is of an american plum in a 6' tube. This one looks like it's getting crowded in the tube. Should I take the tube off and prune down to a single stem?


This is a mammoth wild apple tree I found last year. I got the chainsaw out today to cut down brush around it. After it hardens off this fall, I want to get started pruning it.


This is one of my uglier 6' tubed cranberry bushes.


This is one of many tubed cranberries that looks to be taking the tubing very well. That being said, I'm confused as to whether or not this is successful. Should I try to get into the tube and prune off the extra limbs on the crowded ones?

 

[sandbur]

What size apple does that wild tree have, when does it drop, and is it in zone 172? I have never seen a wild apple in 172.

 

[sandbur]

Could you scatter some pel lime around the wild tree and add some fruit tree spikes?

 

[SD51555]

What size apple does that wild tree have, when does it drop, and is it in zone 172? I have never seen a wild apple in 172.

This one is in Mcleod County in south central MN. It puts on a grape sized apple, yellow. I'm not sure when it dropped. I'm not certain exactly when I found it, and it only had a few apples left on it.

 

[SD51555]

Could you scatter some pel lime around the wild tree and add some fruit tree spikes?

Absolutely. I wonder if I shouldn't soil test first? A tree that large, might be worth a few dollars to get it right.

 

[sandbur]

Absolutely. I wonder if I shouldn't soil test first? A tree that large, might be worth a few dollars to get it right.

In Mcleod county you might not need lime. There is a line that runs diagonally across the state where lime is or is not needed as much for crops. I see less lime use as I get into Meeker county as opposed to some parts of Stearns county. I had thought you were referring to Cass county, but many of the pictures did not look like Cass to me.

 

[SD51555]

In Mcleod county you might not need lime. There is a line that runs diagonally across the state where lime is or is not needed as much for crops. I see less lime use as I get into Meeker county as opposed to some parts of Stearns county. I had thought you were referring to Cass county, but many of the pictures did not look like Cass to me.

My primary hunting property is up in Cass. My family has farmland in Mcleod county. I started out putzing with different things on the family's land. Last year was the first year I felt I had gotten close to getting it right, and started going bigger up north.

 

[Jameson]

LOL! You described my old stomping grounds of Mcleod county well, "....deer pop is low if not extinct out here..." And it's the reason I don't stomp around there anymore. I would think you should just pull the tubes from those cranberries. Even in the metro the deer don't eat them.