Disaster!

[StephenH]

Well, misfortune, anyway.
Yesterday, I was looking at the fruitlets on my 'Flower of Kent'. The branch with most on is an upright one, up near the top of the tree. I bent it down to have a closer look. Bad idea. It snapped, at the base!
Fortunately, it didn't come right away from the tree: it was still connected by a strip of bark. Therefore, I got some tough gaffer-tape, and bound it fairly tightly back into position: not all that easy, because it is one of two branches growing from the same position at the end of an older branch, so I had to bind it to the other one. (Yes, I know I should have pruned out the weaker of the two last winter.) No sign of any wilting of the leaves today, so I may have got away with it, although the shock to its system may yet, I suppose, make it shed its fruitlets. We shall see. According to the weather forecast, tomorrow is going to be very windy, so I'll see how the repair stands up to that. Not a total disaster if it does have to be removed in the end - there are a reasonable number of fruitlets developing elsewhere on the tree, and the removal of the ones on that branch might just mean that the remainder grow a bit bigger.

[FB.]

"...it is one of two branches growing from the same position at the end of an older branch...."

That's probably why the branch broke; neither branch is able to anchor itself properly.

Chances are that the branch would have broken one day - maybe causing a large split in the tree. Such "twin" branches - or narrow-angled branches - are best removed when young to avoid structural problems later.

That's why I mostly try to use thinning cuts rather than heading cuts; it tends to result in better branch angles and better branch spacing. Any twin leaders get removed with the thinning cuts the following winter.

[StephenH]

I'll bear that in mind for the future. Thanks.

[FB.]

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I once made a sketch of thinning cuts v heading cuts and how the typical fruit tree responded.
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[FB.]

And a couple of previously-posted pictures of a MM111 with the leader retained to widen the branch angles. The second picture shows the leader removed the following winter after the branch angles had "set".

[StephenH]

Interesting - thanks!

[StephenH]

Further disaster! I went out into the garden this morning, after a rather breezy night, and discovered that the broken branch was hanging down, and the branch next to it, to which I'd bound it, was also broken at the base, though not as completely as the first. I removed them both, and pruned back the older stem, which they'd been growing from the top of, and which is in fact the leader, back to an outward-facing bud. Rather a pity to lose so many fruitlets, but there are a reasonable number on the rest of the tree. I should have removed the damaged branch completely in the first place - and for that matter, I should have pruned the tree properly in the winter. I will make sure I do all the pruning necessary on all my trees this coming winter.