Top worked Apple trees (pruning)

[James P. Bipps]

I top worked this tree last year at about this time. I converted it from a crabapple to a Harrison apple. Today I pruned off the nurse branches I left and pruned it. My questions are should I prune the 2-3 feet of new growth further? Should I push out the new growth with spreaders or do crotch angles look okay?

Thanks.

 

[b116757]

Nice job looks like it will be producing in short order.

 

[Prof.Kent]

Looks good. Let it grow vertically. It will not fully mature until it his its maximum height.

 

[Eagle]

It looks good to me. Possibly next year trim the vertical branches. My experience is top worked trees want to develop a new tree with each graft so they do require pruning. Also, if you don't have a pollinator nearby it works great to add a branch of another variety. Or let one natural branch grow, although it may want to take over so you'll neeed to do some extra pruning to keep it small. You might want to get some wound spray and coat the cut branches.

 

[James P. Bipps]

Looks good. Let it grow vertically. It will not fully mature until it his its maximum height.

Do you mean the central leader or the scaffolds?

 

[cavey]

Wow you went to town on the top working the limbs! I like it! You cant get any better crotch angles than you had on the tree from the start nice job there. I think I would let them grow for another year before I started torking down on the limbs / graft unions. lIMO let the limbs really get growing and healing up around those grafts - then figure out what you want the tree to look like - training out the end limbs is a choice and opinions will really start to vary. Do you go for those scarecrow/harry potter looking orchard trees or a more natural tree - what size and volume of apples do you want. Some of the more advanced growers will need to pipe in on how you train out those limbs. You are already way ahead of most of us here.

Really nice job!

 

[Wild Thing]

No expert here as you know Brian...but you got a LOT of growth from those grafts in only one year. If it were me I would want to slow them down or they will be so long they will never support any weight from a good load of fruit. I know it is early on in the life of that new tree, but I would cut those scaffolds back by at least 1/3.

I know Prof Kent has been at this a lot longer than I have but I never let my central leaders get out of control either. Perhaps @Prof.Kent can elaborate on letting the central leader go??

I have pretty much determined the max height on my trees and gradually cut back the leader until it stays there and it has worked fine for me?





I did have issues with long scaffolds breaking under the fruit load so now I try to keep them in check also.