Suggestions for Pruning Old Wild Apple Trees

Natty Bumppo

Natty Bumppo

5 year old buck +
I have many, many dozens of old wild apples on my land with DBH's of anywhere between 8" up to 12 or 14". I have been releasing then for the past 5 or 6 years and pruning them up. I have many that are very tall....14' or 16' or so and the tops of all these trees do not look healthy when compared to the limbs and branches growing lower the ground. These high branches and limbs look kind of scraggly and weathered. They do leaf out and some even bear fruit. They just don't seem to be vigorous. Would it be a good idea to get up on an orchard ladder and prune off all this wood?

Thanks in advance.
 
I wish I could help, Natty - but I have no experience with that situation. I'm hoping Maya or Appleman will chime in here. I want to learn the " how to " answer too. We have a couple OLD trees that could use some pruning, but I don't know the right method. I'll stay tuned !!
 
I need to follow along here, I’m in the same boat.


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My wild apples are so tall that pruning isn't really feasibly possible. On a few that stopped producing I've cut out one of the trunks to stimulate growth.

I had tried to free one apple tree from a ash that was shading it out. The ash was hallow and ended up falling not how I planned. Took much of the apple tree out. Turns out it actually helped, basically it pruned what I never would have reached.

Production went up even though it's crazy ugly
 
I have 28 apple trees on my land. I did not plant a single one of them. All were planted by a previous owner prior to the 1970s. While these trees grew over the past 40+ years so did their surroundings. I have opened all South and East exposures to these trees to the best of my abilities. After leaving them alone for years, I started pruning them three winters ago. I decided on two years of pruning to take out all the dead and upright branches. The apple wood all went to a friend who smokes venison and other meats. He was happy to take them and I am glad to see them going to a good use rather than a brush pile. I cleaned out the area under the trees to the extent of the drip line with my brush hog and by hand where necessary. I put fertilizer spikes under the drip line of these trees every spring and keep up with the area under the tree being brush free. That is what works for me.
 
I know the feeling Natty. My objective is to get sunlight into these wild tree as much as possible. I do have one of those telescoping pruners with a saw on the end, which gets me maybe 10’ into the tree. I try to cut out competing upright stems, and those heading back into the center of the tree. I can't do anything to the tops of these wild apples. The beauty of tall trees is that their crowns are above a lot of the competing vegetation and getting full sun. I have resigned myself that these tall, wild trees are always going to look "ugly", and are probably not going to produce as much as some prized nursery varieties in an orchard setting. Personally, I'd do what you can from the ground, but beyond that, love them the way they are.
 
Thanks for the responses everybody. I think for sure I'll bringing in some fertilizer and lime to put down around the trees.

I think you're right Apple Junkie...do what I can down low and just kind of accept the crowns. Even if I brought an extension ladder out in the woods, it might be a little wobbly and unsafe trying to balance the ladder that high up.
 
I don't know if it'll be of any help in your situation, Natty, but something Apple Junkie said reminded me of an outcome at camp. We have an OLD apple tree completely surrounded by pines and all it did was grow upward, trying to get to sunlight. It wasn't making blossoms anymore. Then we cut down a few of the pine trees on the south side of the apple tree so sunlight could get to it. It stopped upward growth, mostly, and the canopy spread out more. With very minimal pruning, it started to make loads of blossoms and fruit again - and we didn't fertilize it. We only put down lime to counter all the pine needles' acidity.

I don't know if that bit of info on our tree's reaction to sunlight helps you as far as pruning the uppermost canopy of your apple trees. I have no idea what your location(s) looks like. We didn't need to top our tree, but it went from looking like a tall string bean to more like a head of broccoli. If you can picture that. FWIW !!!! :emoji_thinking:
 
Bowsnbucks said:
I don't know if it'll be of any help in your situation, Natty, but something Apple Junkie said reminded me of an outcome at camp. We have an OLD apple tree completely surrounded by pines and all it did was grow upward, trying to get to sunlight. It wasn't making blossoms anymore. Then we cut down a few of the pine trees on the south side of the apple tree so sunlight could get to it. It stopped upward growth, mostly, and the canopy spread out more. With very minimal pruning, it started to make loads of blossoms and fruit again - and we didn't fertilize it. We only put down lime to counter all the pine needles' acidity.

I don't know if that bit of info on our tree's reaction to sunlight helps you as far as pruning the uppermost canopy of your apple trees. I have no idea what your location(s) looks like. We didn't need to top our tree, but it went from looking like a tall string bean to more like a head of broccoli. If you can picture that. FWIW !!!! :emoji_thinking:
Click to expand...

Thanks Bowsnbucks. That makes sense. I can picture it. I have many like that too...tall string beans. On all these the growth all looks healthy. On my bigger and older trees the very tops just look really dry and unhealthy. The bark is kind of dark and peeling. Very little leafing occurs.

Thanks for taking the time to post!
 
Natty - Dry, unhealthy tops may need more done then. We haven't had nasty tops, so maybe our situations are different. How far would you have to tote an orchard ladder ??
 
How about putting in tree pegs to get high enough to top the tree and leave the pegs for future pruning? Think it would have negative issues?
 
Bowsnbucks said:
Natty - Dry, unhealthy tops may need more done then. We haven't had nasty tops, so maybe our situations are different. How far would you have to tote an orchard ladder ??
Click to expand...

Not too bad. All of my trees are accessible with my ATV and my trailer. I could strap the ladder to my wagon and head out for a morning. If I take my time and maybe even find somebody to spot the ladder for me I think it might be prudent to get rid of those tops. I'll see if I can take a few pics. Not sure if it's disease or just the nature of the beast with very tall growing old apples.
 
^^^^^ 2nd man is a good idea for safety !! No posting from a hospital bed, Natty !!
That's easier if you can drive your equipment there.
 
I put my helper in the Kubota front end loader with a chain saw and a pole saw. We were able to get a lot of high pruning done by working like that. I had to keep my eyes on him at all times and watch his hand signals. In my mind, a lot easier than dragging an orchard ladder around every tree.
 
JFK52 said:
I put my helper in the Kubota front end loader with a chain saw and a pole saw. We were able to get a lot of high pruning done by working like that. I had to keep my eyes on him at all times and watch his hand signals. In my mind, a lot easier than dragging an orchard ladder around every tree.
Click to expand...

That might be easier for sure. My apples are accessible, but they aren't quite that accessible. These are old wild apples that grow in little clumps of 6, 7, 8....maybe up to a dozen or so...scattered throughout my land. I can get an ATV and a trailer to them. I couldn't get my JD 990 to them.
 
I follow the advise of someone on here who said you should be able to throw a cat through the tree without it hitting a branch. I have released and pruned about 20 old trees I can only remember two like you described. The first one I cut a lot of the top out and a few years later the tree looks normal and you probably couldn't tell anything was cut. The other one is the biggest of all the trees. Biggest apple tree I have ever seen. It is a complete mess after I released it. It has put on hundreds of new shoots from the lower branches. The top branches look like you describe and there is no way to reach them with any ladder I have. To make it worse there is a giant dead ash 5' away. It's branches have started to drop so I am waiting to see if it takes out any of the apple tree. It is on my list to do something with this year but I really don't know where to start. Long away of saying I think the trees will respond well to removing those branches.
 
chummer said:
I follow the advise of someone on here who said you should be able to throw a cat through the tree without it hitting a branch. I have released and pruned about 20 old trees I can only remember two like you described. The first one I cut a lot of the top out and a few years later the tree looks normal and you probably couldn't tell anything was cut. The other one is the biggest of all the trees. Biggest apple tree I have ever seen. It is a complete mess after I released it. It has put on hundreds of new shoots from the lower branches. The top branches look like you describe and there is no way to reach them with any ladder I have. To make it worse there is a giant dead ash 5' away. It's branches have started to drop so I am waiting to see if it takes out any of the apple tree. It is on my list to do something with this year but I really don't know where to start. Long away of saying I think the trees will respond well to removing those branches.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chummer. Good to hear from you!
 
chummer said:
I follow the advise of someone on here who said you should be able to throw a cat through the tree without it hitting a branch.
Click to expand...

Another creative use for a cat!

I should note, that I am actually a cat lover. But, I do love a good cat saying.
 
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