Hey guys, My winter project this year is saving our old apple orchard. This used to be a commercial orchard but the trees havent been pruned for 15-20 years. Over the years the trees have grown to be 25-30 feet tall and shaded out the bottoms to the point that many of the lower limbs have died.
The trees still leaf and flower in the tops but fruit production has been poor for the last4-5 years. Trimming these trees back to a reverse pyrimid shape probably isnt very realistic at this point.
To this point i have been going through and removing dead limbs and live limbs that are crossing or crowding the tree. I have read that you shouldnt cut more then 30% of the tree in one year so i feel like i am cutting as aggressively as i can this year.
We have roughly 300 trees in total and time is somewhat limited so this maybe a two year project.
I would love to know what you think of my approach here. If any of the apple experts have advise please share your thoughts.
The first picture is before cutting and the others are after.
The trees still leaf and flower in the tops but fruit production has been poor for the last4-5 years. Trimming these trees back to a reverse pyrimid shape probably isnt very realistic at this point.
To this point i have been going through and removing dead limbs and live limbs that are crossing or crowding the tree. I have read that you shouldnt cut more then 30% of the tree in one year so i feel like i am cutting as aggressively as i can this year.
We have roughly 300 trees in total and time is somewhat limited so this maybe a two year project.
I would love to know what you think of my approach here. If any of the apple experts have advise please share your thoughts.
The first picture is before cutting and the others are after.