Pruning More of My Old Apple Trees
Wintertime pruning continues at my Bedford, New York farm.
Proper pruning is so important - it improves the health of the plants, prevents disease, and encourages better flowering. There are different pruning strategies for different times of the year, but overall the goals are the same - to control the height and shape, develop good limb structure, encourage growth, remove damaged or diseased branches, and to allow for better air circulation. This week, my outdoor grounds crew is busy pruning all the old apple trees. Many of these apple trees are original to the farm, and with good maintenance and regular trimming, these trees will continue to bring bounties of delicious, juicy apples for many years to come.
Here are some photos and tips, enjoy.
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- The temperatures were in the low 30s, but with no wind and lots of sunshine, it was a beautiful day to be working outdoors at the farm. Here is a view across the paddocks with the burlap-covered Boxwood Allee in the distance and the golden yellow weeping willows on the right.
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- This view shows my giant Equipment Barn topped with three antique finials I purchased years ago. My Hay Barn and old corn crib can also be seen in this photo.
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- Off to one side of the donkey paddock and behind the herbaceous peony bed are several old apple trees. The vigorous, upward-growing branches on these trees are all last year’s new growth, which need to be removed.
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- The common name of these branches is sucker, but the technical term is water sprout. These won’t produce fruit, so many of them are pruned so the light can still reach through the center of the tree.
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- Here’s Chhiring working on this side – cutting down any dead, damaged, and crisscrossing branches, as well as any suckers.
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- Pasang works on the other side of the tree. He is able to reach many branches with his hand pruners. Pruning shears, hand pruners, or secateurs are a type of scissors used on plants. They are strong enough to prune hard branches of trees and shrubs, sometimes up to an inch thick.
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- For thicker branches, he also uses a pruning hand saw. A pruning saw makes it easier to cut branches and not harm them. It is also very important to make sure all these cutting tools are very sharp.
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- In general, when pruning always encourage branches to grow toward the outside of the tree and eliminate those that grow toward the center or cross other branches. Air and light need to penetrate the foliage to the center of the tree as much as possible.
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- Pasang removes any branches that grow into each other and ultimately weaken each other. These branches will often have bark that rubs rubs off, leaving tender, unprotected spots for disease to set in.
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- Here’s a clean cut. The new growth should be pruned fairly flush to the branch from which it grew.
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- This shows where a fresh cut was made and where an old cut remains.
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- In the springtime, apple trees flower and produce fruit on long-lived, stubby twigs called spurs, often referred to as old wood. Pruning encourages the tree to grow more of these fruiting spurs. All our fruit trees are pruned once a year.
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- After all the branches are cut, they are gathered, neatly piled, and then processed through a wood chipper to make mulch.
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- Phurba sees a few branches that are perfect perches for my canaries and parakeets. Here he is trimming one to fit the bird cages.
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- And here’s Domi taking the rest of the branches to the truck. These branches will be chipped and reused in the garden later.
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- These trees are very healthy and are showing lots of new buds.
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- Chhiring works on removing any low hanging branches. These hang even lower when packed with fruit, so it is crucial they are trimmed.
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- I always remind the crew to limb up the branches, so they do not touch the ground. These branches are all about a foot above the snow, which means they are about two feet off the ground.
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- This apple trees looks great. These trees are at least 50-years old, so they were already here when I moved to the farm. I am so happy they still produce abundant fruits each season.
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- This tree bears big green apples that are great for snacking.
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- This old tree near my corn crib was also pruned. Crutches made from other felled trees support the heavy branches of this apple tree. The natural “V” shaped notches in the trunks are perfect for this purpose.
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- These “ancient” apple trees in my south paddock were pruned too. I am looking forward to many lustrous green trees heavy with rosy red fruit come autumn.
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