Should I prune central leader now or wait

[Maya]

Thanks so much for all the advise. Is it ok to prune out unwanted limbs now? I thought you should only prune when they are dormant. .

Todd reread post 13 again. I would weak leader prune (generally you need to do it earlier), stake it better and then prune out excessive limbs in late winter/ early spring. Also do not let it have any apples at the top, but let it have some apples if it does this year. That will also slow tree growth. The tree will be fine, don't sweat it!................. What variety/ rootstock is that?

Art, letting the grass grow around would probably slow growth some, but at this point Todd's tree has already done a lot of its growth already. For you, don't do anymore fertilizing and try to thin the tops somehow. For you also, what varieties are you taking, and pics are helpful.

Another thing for you guys, are you heading these trees at planting? That is one thing you want to do, one of the very few times I make heading cuts. 3 reasons; the roots have been cut when they were dug up for sale and you want to get the top a little more in line w/ the roots, it strengthens/ stiffens the leader some, and it initiates scaffold branches. Trees not headed at planting will tend to be whippy.

This is long and pretty involved, but if you really want something good to read on the physiology, training and pruning of apples, this is it. Most of the training seminars I go to are put on by Cornell U. They are tops in apples in my book....... Look especially at figure 9, that is what we are talking about with Todd's tree. Also figure 16. They explain it way better than me! :)

https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/17817/IB 112.pdf?sequence=2

 

[ToddG]

Todd reread post 13 again. I would weak leader prune (generally you need to do it earlier), stake it better and then prune out excessive limbs in late winter/ early spring. Also do not let it have any apples at the top, but let it have some apples if it does this year. That will also slow tree growth. The tree will be fine, don't sweat it!................. What variety/ rootstock is that?

Art, letting the grass grow around would probably slow growth some, but at this point Todd's tree has already done a lot of its growth already. For you, don't do anymore fertilizing and try to thin the tops somehow. For you also, what varieties are you taking, and pics are helpful.

Another thing for you guys, are you heading these trees at planting? That is one thing you want to do, one of the very few times I make heading cuts. 3 reasons; the roots have been cut when they were dug up for sale and you want to get the top a little more in line w/ the roots, it strengthens/ stiffens the leader some, and it initiates scaffold branches. Trees not headed at planting will tend to be whippy.

This is long and pretty involved, but if you really want something good to read on the physiology, training and pruning of apples, this is it. Most of the training seminars I go to are put on by Cornell U. They are tops in apples in my book....... Look especially at figure 9, that is what we are talking about with Todd's tree. Also figure 16. They explain it way better than me! :)

https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/17817/IB 112.pdf?sequence=2

I did head them back at planting. They are on B118 and are Gold Rush, Liberty, and Enterprise.

 

[Maya]

All of them are like that??? That one appears to be an Enterprise, which do have long leggy branches, not too surprising if that's the case, but you should still take the steps listed on the previous page.....Good luck!

 

[Turkey Creek]

All good information above from Maya as usual.

IF you have a Goldrush that looks like that you need to pull the Nitrogen IV drip STAT!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks for all the advice Maya and TC. I learn something every time I get on this forum. Gonna read the Cornell info for sure !!

I've done some weak leader pruning of our trees at camp based on advice from this forum - and it works. I never knew what the process was called until Maya put pix of the before, after, and weeks later of his tree at post # 15, and mentioned the name of the process !!

 

[ToddG]

Thanks for all the help. I weak leader pruned and staked all the trees. They look much better. I'll come back when they are dormant and prune out more branches and try my hand at scoring. I did prune quite a lot this past winter but most of my pruning was getting rid of limbs below 5 ft. I was concerned about taking out to much wood all at once. If you guys don't mind, I'll post some pictures for advice before I begin pruning the next time. I'm new to this and really appreciate the help.

 

[sandbur]

Maya-I have been doing the weak leader pruning on these trees as far as I can reach them. I was referring to chestnut crab and snowsweet that are probably on dolgo or columbia. I also see this happening on some of my grafts on dolgo that have reached the top of the conduit.

i see some of the older trees in local commercial orchards are using the teacup type of pruning. One of them recently added what I think you call the trellis system.

I have done the heading cut on the SLN trees planted since them, but I am learning a bit about pruning after the heading cut.