Rejuvenating older trees

[Charman03]

have two older apple trees on the property that have been neglected and hardly produce many apples anymore. Owner said they used to be loaded but just kind of let them go. There's nice looking apples on them, just not a lot. It's my goal to bring these trees back to producers. Any tips?

 

[SD51555]

You'll find a number of guys on here in different stages of rehabbing trees like this. I'll defer to them on specific advice. I'd expect some feedback to get the dead stuff out and then a couple years of pruning to get it started back up again. Doesn't look like you've got any sun or crowding issues.

 

[Charman03]

The pictures were taken very late in the day is why it looks so shaded. The trees are pretty close together but get about full sunlight all day. So many limbs I don't know where to start

 

[SD51555]

I've been working on one for a couple seasons now. Same boat you're in with the added challenge of shade and crowding. We started knocking back all the brush in year one. We came back in year two and started pruning what we could reach. We've got to find a way to get up into it and get more wood off that thing. There is a 14' section of ladder out there we'll use to try it, plus standing on the four wheeler.

Here's a before/after since pruning what we could reach.

This was the bloom after we took down all the competing brush.

This was the bloom after the first pruning. We gotta take down one large tree south of it causing shade.

 

[greyphase]

Like SD said, get any dead wood pruned out first. Also any limbs that cross over and rub on other limbs. The golden rule seems to be never cut more than 1/3 of the tree in a year with pruning time being in the winter Jan-Feb-early March. Cutting too much at one time will give you a tree full of suckers, that's the tall vertical growth that have few fruiting spurs on it. You want to get light and air into the exterior of the tree. I always walk around the tree looking at it from different angles before I cut a branch. It can be intimidating at first, pruning a tree, but you can probably find some good videos on You tube to help you.

 

[MA VT Flatlander]

University of Maine apple tree pruning video.