It's Pruning Time for Apple Trees

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WHERE TO BEGIN

Begin by removing dead wood, which only invites insect and fungal growth (and—ultimately—heart rot), from your tree or trees. You can—and probably should—dress large cuts with a special paint made for the purpose (see your garden shop), or with ordinary, non-leaded, oil-base exterior paint.

Once you've trimmed away all dead tissue, look for crossing limbs. (On older trees, you may have to sort out whole whorls of tangled branches.) Such a "mare's nest" is undesirable, since the limbs—if they rub—can scrape each other's bark and damage fruit, and since the growth of too many branches in one place tends to tie up the tree's energy (thereby limiting the amount and size of its fruit). The remedy is to remove one or the other of any crossing limbs.

If the tree's getting too tall or too wide, don't hesitate to cut it back. The usual practice when training young trees is to nip the tips of most branches back one-third to one-half the previous year's growth. (You can determine yearly growth—after the first year of pruning—by closely observing the segments on the branches.) This not only promotes the development of heavier branches but controls any spreading or reaching tendency. (If you cut back into older wood, however, you may severely limit—or altogether stop—new growth.)

It's generally a good idea—when you remove excess branches from a major limb or large branch—to leave intact those shoots that come off the sides (although even these quite often need to be thinned). On the other hand, under branches-arising from the bottom of a limb or branch—are usually weak and should be removed . . . as should branches that grow out of the tops of others (the exception being when the growth in question is at the end of a branch).

Upward-growing branches often get out of hand and drain too much energy from a main limb. Such growths—called water sprouts—can ruin the form of a tree by reaching up into higher branches, where they cause rubbing, entanglement, and general chaos. Hence, they should be nipped.

Finally, remove any branches that grow back toward the center of a tree, as these wayward growths tend to limit the light so necessary to the proper ripening of fruit.

CENTRAL LEADER TRAINING

Adequate light is so important that, until not too many years ago, experienced pruners deliberately shaped apple trees into a vase-like form: completely open in the center, with several main boughs emanating from one point a few feet high on the trunk. Experience, however, has shown that such trees are weak and tend to split easily . . . and when they do split, a main limb (in other words, a large percentage of the tree) is lost.

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