Anna and Dorsett Golden Apples
Pruning apple trees is easy after you've done it once and made some mistakes. I always learn the most from my horticultural screw-ups. Apple trees should be pruned into a "central leader" or "modified-central leader" shape, as discussed on the A&M site here. I messed this up when I first pruned my Anna apple, because I was afraid to cut off too much wood. So I wound up with two central leaders instead of one.
I pruned both of my apple trees, and saved all the cut wood. Apple wood is great for smoking meat. I'll let it dry out, and then smoke some chicken with it. There are several good videos on YouTube that demonstrate good apple pruning techniques. I tend to just cut everything back about 30%, remove all suckers and hangers, and remove any damaged wood.
I've also been told that its really important for your main scaffold branches to have good crotch angles with the trunk. These are the branches that will be bearing the weight of tall the fruit, and if they are too weak they could break. They say 60 degrees is ideal. To achieve this, you're supposed to widen the crotch angles with limb spreaders, which are essentially wood, plastic, or metal sticks you wedge between brances to spread them out. You can buy these at orchard supply websites, but they're expensive, and I just figured I'd make due with what I had.
There's a big oleander (I hate that plant) that grows behind my fence, and I'm always chopping off the branches that grow over and try to shade out my trees. I cut several sticks from it and fashioned them into makeshift limb spreaders. They worked great, and were free. I got everything done just in time. The trees are starting to break dormancy, and there are several blossoms forming on both. Anna fruited last year, and I'm hoping that both trees fruit this year.
I pruned both of my apple trees, and saved all the cut wood. Apple wood is great for smoking meat. I'll let it dry out, and then smoke some chicken with it. There are several good videos on YouTube that demonstrate good apple pruning techniques. I tend to just cut everything back about 30%, remove all suckers and hangers, and remove any damaged wood.
I've also been told that its really important for your main scaffold branches to have good crotch angles with the trunk. These are the branches that will be bearing the weight of tall the fruit, and if they are too weak they could break. They say 60 degrees is ideal. To achieve this, you're supposed to widen the crotch angles with limb spreaders, which are essentially wood, plastic, or metal sticks you wedge between brances to spread them out. You can buy these at orchard supply websites, but they're expensive, and I just figured I'd make due with what I had.
There's a big oleander (I hate that plant) that grows behind my fence, and I'm always chopping off the branches that grow over and try to shade out my trees. I cut several sticks from it and fashioned them into makeshift limb spreaders. They worked great, and were free. I got everything done just in time. The trees are starting to break dormancy, and there are several blossoms forming on both. Anna fruited last year, and I'm hoping that both trees fruit this year.
Anna apple before pruning.
Anna apple after pruning.
Pruned apple tree with limb spreaders.
A homemade limb spreader.
Dorsett Golden apple before pruning.
After pruning with limb spreaders.
My apple trees when they first arrived bare-root from Ison's in 2008.
