Apple pruning advice please

[mikedigitales]

Hi everyone,

Now it's finally stopped raining I'd appreciate any advice on pruning my apple trees please, I've taken a photo of each to help. I planted them just over a year ago, watered them through the summer and haven't fruited them so far.

The two larger trees were bought as 2 year old b/root, both on M26 and did well last year. The middle small 'tree', bought as a maiden b/root, on MM111 has not done so well. It suffered some bark damage, possibly canker on the central stem early on, which I was advised to cut back. Since then it has so far been healthy, but is smaller and looking a bit lop sided.

I'm not worried about fruit this year, and would rather all the energy went into strong growth again this year.

[DuncanM]

General pruning advice is to remove any narrow angled branches as they will generally be weaker in favour of wider angled ones.

Your middle tree discovery looks very lop-sided and I think that would be a problem, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to know how to correct it.

In essence, wait for either OrangePipping or FB

[FB.]

They all would have benefitted from having their main branches shortened (removal of between one-third and one-half of their length) a year ago.

The problem is that if you prune them in that way now, you won't get much fruit for a couple more years (they look like they'll produce a crop this year). But if you don't prune them they may become straggly, poorly shaped and require even more brutal pruning in the future from which they may never look nice or be productive.

Interesting that the Discovery had problems with canker. I'm gradually finding the same; it's becoming so widely grown (in gardens and commercially) that its previously excellent disease resistance is getting worn out; disease strains are evolving to attack it an are spreading to other Discovery trees.

Keep a watch for canker appearing on the other trees; spread to them by the Discovery (possibly passed onto them last year). Even though Lord Derby has good resistance to canker it does not make it immune.

If the Discovery is not doing well, it may be because the canker is still lurking in the tree; you'll need to keep a close eye on the tree to see if canker appears anywhere else.
It seems as if canker produces poisons which affect the tree growth, which in turn make it easier for canker to attack. Canker also seems as if, somehow, it is able to spread through the sap to other parts of the tree.

The Discovery would benefit from some more unusual pruning, but to decide where to make the cuts it will require some closer pictures of where the existing branches join the trunk. Ideally a picture that manages to show all the branch-trunk joints in one shot, and ideally taken from three different directions to give an all-round view of the upper trunk to see exactly where branches and buds are, and how they might be able to be persuaded to form a new and well-shaped canopy.

[mikedigitales]

Dang, I'd thought I'd followed the right advice letting them settle in after planted them and not pruning. I'm not worried about losing a few years harvests and much more focused on the long term shape and productivity of the tree.

I've taken 3 or four images of each tree moving around it about 90 degrees each time, and uploaded them to Imgur to allow a nice high quality image (you can zoom in or download them etc). Also I used a bit of tape to colour code a few of the branches to make it easier to see which is which (red, yellow, white, black).

Hopefully they're OK, but if you need more images or a video let me know and i'll get on it Thanks!

Clicky for Imgur Photo Album

[FB.]

The pictures are taking a very long time to load - I could only see half the first image after about five minutes.
I don't know whether it's my poor internet connection (the drawback of not living in a major city) or the website?

Can you put a few pics up on this thread?

[mikedigitales]

Ahh it's probably the size of the files vs internet speed, I'll reszie them and add them here

[mikedigitales]

Lord Derby on M26

[mikedigitales]

Discovery on MM111

[mikedigitales]

Winter Gem on M26

[FB.]

With the Lord Derby I would cut off a bit more than one third (but not more than half) of the length of each branch, to a suitably placed few buds beneath the pruning cut. It is likely that between two and four buds below the pruning cut will produce side branches (the bud closest the pruning cut will tend to try to continue in the direction of the branch while the buds below will grow outwards at progressively wider angles the further they are from the tip.

[FB.]

There are several possibilities with the Discovery.

I'm going to chew that one over for a day or two, but here's what I'm thinking:

1. Total removal (cut back all the way to the trunk) of the one long side branch.

- or -

2. Shorten the one long side branch to just 1-3 buds and use some pinching-out to slow its growth and redirect its energy to the other branches.

- or -

3. Cut back the long side branch somewhere near to the weak spur-like bud near the white tape (the weak bud would not absorb all the sap going to that branch, so the sap would be used elsewhere in the tree and maybe restore some balance).

4. Total removal of the white and yellow branches to redirect the sap to the higher (but currently quite short) branches which would probably grow out in all directions and make a nice balanced set of branches.

- and -

Remove the tip of all the branches because they all look like fruit buds which, combined with fighting canker, may be too much for a little tree to cope with (it takes a lot of the trees energy to produce fruit and your Discovery needs to grow and fight off the canker before you push it too hard for fruit).

But it needs more thought.

[FB.]

With the Winter Gem, I'd consider complete removal of both the black and red branches (the strong twin leaders). Then shorten all the remaining branches by about one-third.
But the removal of the two leaders would depend on whether the lower branches are well-placed for what you envisage of the tree when it is mature.

If the remaining branches are too low, you might want to keep one of the two leaders. But only one of the leaders can stay because the tree might eventually split down the middle if both black and red are left on the tree.

So if you want/need to keep one of the two red/black leaders you would be best to shorten it to a point where there are some short side shoots sticking out (for example: a few buds up from the level of the red tape); the existing side short shoots below the pruning cut might help produce nicer (wider) branch angles from the shoots which grow out from them.

[mikedigitales]

Thanks for the replies FB. Spent a couple of days laid out with a cold, but today will be pruning day I'm going to keep the red leader on the Winter Gem, and prune as you suggest on the Lord Derby. What do you think about the Discovery now? Option 4 sounds like a good plan, as the tree is still very small.