Hi all - can I ask for advice on renovating old apple trees.
We added to our garden with part of an old orchard but all that was left were 2 apple trees (and 6ft high nettles, docks etc). These 2 trees are well over 30ft tall and most of the branches are beyond reach even with a ladder. They both fruited really well this year (1 definitely a cooker, the other I'm not sure but they were 'sharp') but I could only gather them from the ground so lots of bruised & battered. All the top branches are really crowded/overlapping/rubbing etc.
I've read as many books about pruning as I can find but all they mention is to open them out to let air circulate etc but without a fireman's help I don't think we would even able to reach!
Would it be too much of a shock to the tree to really 'prune' the top out ie take off whole branches rather than try to thin them out? Both trees do have new shoots lower down (3ft ish long) but obviously these will take a while to grow and the tops really do need sorting out.
Any advice anyone can offer would be greatly received.
We added to our garden with part of an old orchard but all that was left were 2 apple trees (and 6ft high nettles, docks etc). These 2 trees are well over 30ft tall and most of the branches are beyond reach even with a ladder. They both fruited really well this year (1 definitely a cooker, the other I'm not sure but they were 'sharp') but I could only gather them from the ground so lots of bruised & battered. All the top branches are really crowded/overlapping/rubbing etc.
I've read as many books about pruning as I can find but all they mention is to open them out to let air circulate etc but without a fireman's help I don't think we would even able to reach!
Would it be too much of a shock to the tree to really 'prune' the top out ie take off whole branches rather than try to thin them out? Both trees do have new shoots lower down (3ft ish long) but obviously these will take a while to grow and the tops really do need sorting out.
Any advice anyone can offer would be greatly received.
Comment