When Do you Take the Cage Off?

[Spiider]

Hey all - wondering when you guys take the cages off of your fruit trees?

It was easy to prune my trees the 1st and 2nd years, but now on years 3 and 4 it's getting difficult. I didn't prune and shape as much as I could/should have early on, but I did as much as I was comfortable with. I'm now growing bolder and am really ready to make some dedicated scaffolds on my apple trees.

My plan was to cut everything up, to about 4' from the ground and use the central leader system (apple trees). These are all standard size trees on B.118 root stock. Then start scaffolds with spaces around 12" in between.

For the trees that need some training though, the cages are completely in the way for pulling down the branches. What should I do? If I take them off, I could spray them every month or two for a couple years with Deer Stopper Concentrate (has worked great!). What are you guys all doing? Most of the trees in the pics are 4 (about to start their 3rd year in the ground) years old.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Answer is NEVER. Even after you get them high enough the Bucks start rubbing them and that can damage or kill them I took off for one season and had 7 trees gouged very heavily. Put the cages back on and the trees are fine. You can reduce cage size but protect the trunk

 

[Bowsnbucks]

X-2 !! NEVER !! Amen Aero. Perfect - perfect - perfect !!

 

[Turkey Creek]

If your cages are staked so they can't move tie your limbs to your cage. You will also want more than 12" between your scaffolds or were you talking individual limbs on a scaffold? Were you pictures before or after pruning? You need to tie down those leaders that are competing to be the central leader or prune them off. Trees look nice though, get to pruning and dont let the deer get to them!!!

 

[j-bird]

Once my trees reach a size where the lower limbs are 5' or so off the ground I will remove the outer cage....however I still keep the trunk entirely protected against rubs and critters eating the bark. I typically simply just grossly reduce the diameter of the outer cage to like a foot across and still fits loosely and freely around the tree. I still keep the fine mesh on the lower section to protect against rabbits and rodents.

 

[Spiider]

If your cages are staked so they can't move tie your limbs to your cage. You will also want more than 12" between your scaffolds or were you talking individual limbs on a scaffold? Were you pictures before or after pruning? You need to tie down those leaders that are competing to be the central leader or prune them off. Trees look nice though, get to pruning and dont let the deer get to them!!!

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the input. I haven't pruned these trees this year yet. I'll be doing it this weekend. The limbs are much longer than the outside of my cages are already though, not that I can't trim them to force growth where I want, but my cages just aren't big enough to do that.

 

[Spiider]

Once my trees reach a size where the lower limbs are 5' or so off the ground I will remove the outer cage....however I still keep the trunk entirely protected against rubs and critters eating the bark. I typically simply just grossly reduce the diameter of the outer cage to like a foot across and still fits loosely and freely around the tree. I still keep the fine mesh on the lower section to protect against rabbits and rodents.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. This sounds like the method I'll adopt. Though, I'm wondering if I should have just stuck with 4' cages, so I don't have to trim up so high. I think I'll knock down my 5' cages to 4' when the time comes to just protect the base of the tree from deer. I'll also leave my screens around the bases to protect from mice, voles, rabbits, etc...

 

[Lot2Learn]

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. This sounds like the method I'll adopt. Though, I'm wondering if I should have just stuck with 4' cages, so I don't have to trim up so high. I think I'll knock down my 5' cages to 4' when the time comes to just protect the base of the tree from deer. I'll also leave my screens around the bases to protect from mice, voles, rabbits, etc...

I like having the 5' cages because starting the first scaffold at the top of the cage will keep the limbs out of the browse line when I reduce the diameter of the cage.

If you're on b.118 rootstock, the trees will be plenty tall with plenty of branches if you start at 5' and put scaffolds every ~2-3'.

 

[Spiider]

I like having the 5' cages because starting the first scaffold at the top of the cage will keep the limbs out of the browse line when I reduce the diameter of the cage.

If you're on b.118 rootstock, the trees will be plenty tall with plenty of branches if you start at 5' and put scaffolds every ~2-3'.

Ok, so looking at my pictures with the 5' cages, can I start training up to that height now? I'll be pruning them this weekend.

 

[Lot2Learn]

You'll get different opinions probably, but I'd start by:

1. taking out the lowest branches (the consensus is to *not* take out more than 33% of the tree in any one year, but I must confess that I sometimes violate that...but you don't have to 'trim up' to the 5' in a single year)
2. importantly, make sure that your central leader doesn't have competition (you might search for 'central leader pruning' on the forums...Maya and Ed have some great pictures that explain the process) because lots of the juice from the removed lower branches will go right to your central leader
3. tie down any branches you leave on the tree to 60 degrees

 

[Spiider]

You'll get different opinions probably, but I'd start by:

1. taking out the lowest branches (the consensus is to *not* take out more than 33% of the tree in any one year, but I must confess that I sometimes violate that...but you don't have to 'trim up' to the 5' in a single year)
2. importantly, make sure that your central leader doesn't have competition (you might search for 'central leader pruning' on the forums...Maya and Ed have some great pictures that explain the process) because lots of the juice from the removed lower branches will go right to your central leader
3. tie down any branches you leave on the tree to 60 degrees

Thank you for the tips! I got the pruning done on Saturday thankfully, as it rained all day today. It felt like I was hurting something important to me, so I hope I didn't over do it. I did not have time to tie any of the needed branches down yet. Most came out ok, though on some, I didn't start early enough and now they look like skelatons... I'll post some "after" pics tomorrow.

 

[Lot2Learn]

BTW, in my post above I meant 'weak leader pruning', not 'central leader pruning'.

Here's a great old thread on the old site that describes it well: https://www.qdma.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16044

Ed's got a beautiful 'after' picture of pinching below the terminal bud here: http://habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/tis-the-season.3392/

 

[rocksnstumps]

Once my trees reach a size where the lower limbs are 5' or so off the ground I will remove the outer cage....however I still keep the trunk entirely protected against rubs and critters eating the bark. I typically simply just grossly reduce the diameter of the outer cage to like a foot across and still fits loosely and freely around the tree. I still keep the fine mesh on the lower section to protect against rabbits and rodents.

X2 on above
Some trees I have also kept the window screen on and gone with the lightweight flexible 6" dia drainage pipe split lengthwise on my table saw. I could only find black so I have gone back on ones applied last year and spray painted white after having some sunscald issues on some oaks.

 

[Spiider]

Here are some pics of the "better" looking trees pruned. I do need to go back out and tie down a lot of the branches. Let me know what you think, but be kind at the same time ;)

 

[greyphase]

I'd say you did good. Next year I'd prune off some more of the lowest branches aiming for that 5 foot first scaffold.

 

[Spiider]

I'd say you did good. Next year I'd prune off some more of the lowest branches aiming for that 5 foot first scaffold.

Thank you. That will be my plan. Hopefully after this years pruning I'll be over the, "I'm hurting my trees" feeling while lopping off all those big lower branches :)

My boys came out and asked why I was cutting all the big, lower branches off, so I had to wipe the cringing look off my face and tell them the goal and why's.

 

[Lot2Learn]

Hopefully after this years pruning I'll be over the, "I'm hurting my trees" feeling while lopping off all those big lower branches :)

The irony is that dormant pruning invigorates the trees. When I'm pruning/training I like to think that I'm working with the tree to direct its energy to where we both want it to go.

 

[Spiider]

The irony is that dormant pruning invigorates the trees. When I'm pruning/training I like to think that I'm working with the tree to direct its energy to where we both want it to go.

That's what I had to keep telling myself. And the boys :)