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#1
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Looking for detailed info about pruning apple tree
I have a semi-dwarf apple tree, about 8 years old, on M7 rootstock, I
think. It is about 15 feet tall, pruned as a modified central leader. It is heavier on the south side because it is growing away from a big maple tree that crowds it a little on the north. It has way too many small branches, and apple production has been declining for the past couple of years. There are only maybe a 6 or 8 apples this year, and I'm willing to pull them all off to help break the cycle of the apple maggots that cause so much damage every year. This tree should be able to produce 150 or more apples every year. I'm looking for information about how to prune the tree to encourage fruit spur production instead of new wood. All the pruning guides I find on the web only tell about the importance of training the scaffold branches. I already know that. I've read about it in a book on pruning espalair or cordon fruit trees, but that was a long time ago. I dunno if I even spelled that right. IIRC, summer pruning instead of the usual late winter pruning promotes fruit spur production. I am also thinking about air layering one of the many vertical growing branches to grow an own-root standard apple tree. I already know how to do that, but I'm not sure if it's too late to start this year to get a good enough root system to survive the winter. I also don't know how well apple trees grow on their own roots rather than grafted rootstock -- but I think it should give a longer lived tree and full sized tree. Thanks, regards, Bob |
#2
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Looking for detailed info about pruning apple tree
apples grow on old wood stock, not new. very early spring pruning stimulates new
growth while summer pruning is to control size. new wood has to age before spurs form. those many little small branches are where the apples form. other than clearing out dead wood and opening up the center, my mother never pruned our large apple trees. and apples require a spray schedule starting with dormant oil in winter and every 7-10 days after blossom drop (which is the most important spray) to produce nice looking unwormy apples. vertical growing branches suggest pruning has already stimulated water sprouts. these are removed in mid to late July, not in spring. if this was a cold wet spring that could be the reason for the lack of apples. other cultural conditions could contribute to its decline. Ingrid zxcvbob wrote: I have a semi-dwarf apple tree, about 8 years old, on M7 rootstock, I think. It is about 15 feet tall, pruned as a modified central leader. It is heavier on the south side because it is growing away from a big maple tree that crowds it a little on the north. It has way too many small branches, and apple production has been declining for the past couple of years. There are only maybe a 6 or 8 apples this year, and I'm willing to pull them all off to help break the cycle of the apple maggots that cause so much damage every year. This tree should be able to produce 150 or more apples every year. I'm looking for information about how to prune the tree to encourage fruit spur production instead of new wood. All the pruning guides I find on the web only tell about the importance of training the scaffold branches. I already know that. I've read about it in a book on pruning espalair or cordon fruit trees, but that was a long time ago. I dunno if I even spelled that right. IIRC, summer pruning instead of the usual late winter pruning promotes fruit spur production. I am also thinking about air layering one of the many vertical growing branches to grow an own-root standard apple tree. I already know how to do that, but I'm not sure if it's too late to start this year to get a good enough root system to survive the winter. I also don't know how well apple trees grow on their own roots rather than grafted rootstock -- but I think it should give a longer lived tree and full sized tree. Thanks, regards, Bob ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List http://puregold.aquaria.net/ www.drsolo.com Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the endorsements or recommendations I make. |
#3
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Looking for detailed info about pruning apple tree
Hello
I am an backyard apple tree grower. Most of my knowledge comes from reading and trail and error , a fair amount of error . The majority of my trees are on dwarf M9 root stock. I do have aGrimes Golden on M7. Here are a few things to check. #Most apple trees need to be cross pollinated with a another apple with viable pollen. Do you another apple tree close by? # It is good to do a lot of the prunning on dwarf and semi dwarf apple trees in the late spring and summer. Fertilizers with high nitrogen content will promote vegitive growth at the expense of fruit set. Bill |
#4
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Looking for detailed info about pruning apple tree
Bill726 wrote:
Hello I am an backyard apple tree grower. Most of my knowledge comes from reading and trail and error , a fair amount of error . The majority of my trees are on dwarf M9 root stock. I do have aGrimes Golden on M7. Here are a few things to check. #Most apple trees need to be cross pollinated with a another apple with viable pollen. Do you another apple tree close by? # It is good to do a lot of the prunning on dwarf and semi dwarf apple trees in the late spring and summer. Fertilizers with high nitrogen content will promote vegitive growth at the expense of fruit set. Bill My neighbor has a standard size apple tree of unknown variety. I don't think they get any usable fruit from it, but it blooms and apparently is a good pollenator for my tree because I've gotten good fruit set in the past. Also, there are flowering crabapple trees in the neighborood, but not all that close by. My tree didn't bloom very good this year, and it was cold and wet while it was blooming. So it probably didn't get pollenated very well. Especially with the decline in the honeybee population. That still doesn't explain the poor blooming. It looks like the tree is getting a little too much nitrogen, but I don't give it or the lawn any fertilizer. Plus the tree has to compete with the grass underneath it for nitrogen. (It probably could use a little phosphorus, and I have a bucket (it was in a bag originally) of triple superphosphate in my garage that's been there about 10 years... I need to thin the inner branches anyway; I'm not sure what the best time of year to prune them to encourage fruit spur production. I haven't really pruned the tree at all in several years. It does have some nice horizontal-growing scaffold branches, and way too many secondary branches. I think I should probably prune it this month, while the weather is hot and (hopefully) dry so I don't have to worry so much about fire blight. My neighbor had to cut down a huge elm tree (Dutch Elm Disease) that was near the property line on the north east that was probably crowding both my apple tree and theirs. Now that the elm is gone the yards are a little more open and that should help. Best regards, Bob |
#5
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Looking for detailed info about pruning apple tree
I didn't read your post, but I'm always so curious why, if you have the world in
your house via the Internet, must you ask for such intensive questions to be answered here on Usenet. Do a search on www.google.com and you will find ten billion places with tons and tons of information. Maybe I'm just cranky, but sheesh it is so tiring at times. On Wed, 02 Jul 2003 23:44:30 -0500, zxcvbob wrote: I have a semi-dwarf apple tree, about 8 years old, on M7 rootstock, I think. It is about 15 feet tall, pruned as a modified central leader. It is heavier on the south side because it is growing away from a big maple tree that crowds it a little on the north. It has way too many small branches, and apple production has been declining for the past couple of years. There are only maybe a 6 or 8 apples this year, and I'm willing to pull them all off to help break the cycle of the apple maggots that cause so much damage every year. This tree should be able to produce 150 or more apples every year. I'm looking for information about how to prune the tree to encourage fruit spur production instead of new wood. All the pruning guides I find on the web only tell about the importance of training the scaffold branches. I already know that. I've read about it in a book on pruning espalair or cordon fruit trees, but that was a long time ago. I dunno if I even spelled that right. IIRC, summer pruning instead of the usual late winter pruning promotes fruit spur production. I am also thinking about air layering one of the many vertical growing branches to grow an own-root standard apple tree. I already know how to do that, but I'm not sure if it's too late to start this year to get a good enough root system to survive the winter. I also don't know how well apple trees grow on their own roots rather than grafted rootstock -- but I think it should give a longer lived tree and full sized tree. Thanks, regards, Bob |
#6
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Looking for detailed info about pruning apple tree
animaux wrote:
I didn't read your post, but I'm always so curious why, if you have the world in your house via the Internet, must you ask for such intensive questions to be answered here on Usenet. Do a search on www.google.com and you will find ten billion places with tons and tons of information. I did search on Google and found ten billion places with the same unhelpful information. Trying to refine the search didn't help much; it narrowed things down to 3 million places with the wrong info. After getting some information from someone else knowlegable about fruit tree pruning, I was able to find what I needed. And as far as I know, the thread is still open for discussion. Why are you trying to steer it off-topic? Maybe I'm just cranky, but sheesh it is so tiring at times. So why are you here? Are you just looking for something to be ****ed about? Maybe you would rather we limit discussions to inane and simple questions (so you can understand them) -- and the usual flame wars, of course. If you're not interested in discussing fruit trees, go back to your ongoing argument about vinegar. Regards, Bob |
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