Quote:
i wont go into the specifics about pruning apples, but later i will look for links through WSU and UC davis... for more specifs about types of pruning techniques.
Pruning = vigor.
not pruning= reduced growth, reduced vigor
winter pruning= increases vigor
summer pruning= opens canopy, thins crop load, and reduces vigor
prune it in the winter.
in the summer if you see "suckers" fresh shoots that are vegetative and verticle cut them. ideally, depending on how the tree is established. there are 1-3 "leaders' large verticle branches (think trunk, support like)
the lateral branches off it then have fruiting branches. depending of the type of fruit will depend on the kind of pruning. if it was a red delicious tree the fruit is born on spurs directly on the branches. so reading up on it helps.
its good that you are now pruning it, that is one of the best and first steps to re maintaining a tree.
when pruning imagine where there is tons of shading, open it up. you have to have a plan. in our orchard you can see what the pruning was the year before and see how the workers were training it. you got to know what you want.
normally i cut 6 inches back of new growth. they are the brown, non bark, first year wood, the end shoots. i trim those back for also maintain overall balance and space and for direction.
those are called "heading cuts" at the tip of all plants there is a hormone that regulates bud development along the branch. look up Apical Dominance. when it is cut, below that point the buds will form lateral branches. this is why pruning increases vigor, 1 cut= more branches. pruning in the summer will reduce vigor and allow you to see better what branches are shading more productive branches.
when a tree goes into dormancy in the winter the tree remembers how large its canopy was and makes the proper reserves of energy stored in its roots. in the winter you prune, the canopy is less, but there is still the same amount of energy stored in the ground. in spring when the tree wakes up it has more energy than the canopy initally needed= vigorous growth.
the fact you have 5 trees would help in cross pollination if the apple varitety requires it. pruning will be the best way to help vigor. after bloom ~1-2 when they are the size of your pinky. thin the apple clusters so there is 1 apple per cluster. normally during bloom the first bloom is called "King bloom" this will produce the largest fruit. you will notice one little fruit is larger than the rest that is the king blossom. thin the others and keep it. hand thinning is labor intensive, most apple trees abort a majority, but you would want more. we use a chemical spray, you do not have that access. oh Bartlett pears in our orchard, we have to hand thin. its 'fun' i have done it. it gets old very fast.
by reducing excess crop load your fruit will be larger and better quality. fertilizer will help it alot. the fact it has been there 30 years and not maintained lately= poor soil. tree fruit, apples. have very low root density and if you have weeds around the tree this is directly competing for resources. at best an apple tree has a root density of 1 root per square inch. this is very low.
the rule of thumb that the roots is a large as canopy is about right, except when you prune canopy back alot. mostly it looks mirror image to the canopy.
try not to over fertilize, but weeding around the trees will help. normal grass is alright for it provides ground cover and holds in moisture. if there are clover that is better, legumes capture nitrogen in the air and store it. mow that every few weeks and over time you have organic mulch fertilizer.
a balanced fertilizer would be easiest for you. even though trees require different NPK rations at different growth stages.... but maybe miracle grow will be best because it will include micronutrients that tree is probably becoming deficient in.
hopefully the tree is adquately pollinated by local bees, that could be one problem.
you probably have pests, managing them will help the tree. there are direct pests. Codling moth= worm in apple. this is a quarentine pest. so you cannot transport homegrown fruit out of your area.
indirect pests are like aphids. they munch on leaves, this reduces the fruit growth and quality indirectly.... when applying any pesticides or fertilizer, try applying less than the label says and just do many applications every week or so. the fertilizer miracle grow is good because it is both foliar and root. that will help your trees.
let me know if any of this is useful. print it out please. i get questions like this ALL the time at the fruitstand. "wHy is ___" very common. many times its because people inherit the tree when buying property.
if you have a little spare change and you notice pests, i would reccomend contacting a licenced pest control company for they can diagnose what is wrong and apply chemicals properly and reduce leaching or pollution that normal homeowners are oblivious to.
sorry, i have a chip on my shoulder about people who have a thing against farmers using fertilizer and pesticides and blame us for polluting the rivers...... when in reality it homeowners faults.
a good example: water treatment plants are not capable or removing everything from the stuff they recieve. septic systems also eventually leach into rivers or ground water systems/ aquafirs. a new problem noticed. in salmon, as they migrate up the river they morph from marine to freshwater, this is when sexual diamorphism is obvious, meaning males and females look different. the are noticing many males are switching genders... more females than males. the cause? hormone pollutants. the main contributors are women on menopause hormone replacements, then its us on birth control. in our waste there is tons of hormones, even if your are not even medicated your body naturally produces alot. and these hormones do not break down really, and in the water system it appears that it will cause fish to switch, it influences them. see? something no one ever thinks about! granted women are not going to stop peeing, but someone needs to create enzymes to flush into the septic system to break this down, or water treatment plants need to improve. many are not able to filter out many contaminants or some are too expensive to clean.
this link might help you. i have better notes, but to explain on here would be alot of words. if you can find a local WSU extension office an find a master gardner they might be able to help you better. i will try to find more. but later this month or better, in january prune your tree while it is dormant. then thin out the canopy and correct limb placement in the summer when you can visibly see what is happening. oh one more important thing about apical dominance it regulates hormones depending on the angle of the branch. Verticle branches are not going to be fruiting, verticle means the branch up or down. horizontal is more supportive and also vegetative, you never want a branch at 180degrees even because the crook where it connects is weakened, also a sharp angle will weaken it too. the ideal branch angles are at 45 degrees. now in the winter if it is a bit greater than that gently bend it down, imagine how much it will bend with a crop load. if the branch is too flexible, weak and it could become verticle with weight, that is bad. that is called pendant fruit (like the jewlery) in cherries its bad because the tree stops or reduces sending nutrients to the fruit and they are smaller.
also when pruning you will strengthen the branches and cause them to thicken in their 2,3 and beyond growths..... but again find out what kind of fruit you have because fruit is born on different parts and different ages of branches.... its more complex. this is the perfect year to understand and gain REAL CONTROL of your trees, what you were doing before was good, if you knew what you were doing it would of been better, but now it the time, because you cannot correct a tree or improve its health in one cutting, or in one year, it takes time.... this is why we maintain every year otherwise it gets out of Balanca and control fast.
oh just remembered another thing about possible reduced production. we prune for BALANCE because tree fruit ALTERNATE BEAR, this means they have a On year and an Off year. on= high production, off= low production, rest, recovery from on. pruning helps reduce the load on the ON year to keep it average and prevent tree from resting, and in the Off year the pruning is vigorous. we are constantly trying to manipulate the cycle, because a tree is always in this cycle. some varities are more obvious in it. golden delicious are, but then they are also always high producers every year..... d'anjou pears are very strong alternate bearing, even this year we were short, 700 bins this year vs. 800 last year. so this could also be a reason for little fruit. again pruning and fertilizer is the cure. you have to have a yearly management plan in place. tree fruit is high maintainence. urban people underestimate this, they think occasional attention like gardening or for ornamental trees is enough, nope.
well class is over, sorry about the huge post. you asked. and without knowing much about what you have i tried to tell you everything. who knows? maybe others on this thread have backyard tree fruits too.
this site should help some....
http://gardening.wsu.edu/text/treef.htm
our family orchard has been around since 1905. maybe longer, that is just the date of the Deed.....
www.millororchards.com its not recently updated i been busy lately to state that we are closed for the season. slowly i am trying to put informational stuff about tree fruit on it. please explore, its not complete. i built it from scratch, been self teaching myself how to use dreamweaver and css....
Thank you thank you! I will take a look at your links, and I have this entire post saved so I can re-read it all! So pruning and fertilizer, there are no weeds around my trees, but there is healthy grass and clover. Now around the cherries there are lots of wild climbing rose, and some other type of invasive tree/bush... "These will be removed." In 3 years my property went from massively overgrown, to 90% maintaned... Just these fruit trees to help along.
i wont go into the specifics about pruning apples, but later i will look for links through WSU and UC davis... for more specifs about types of pruning techniques.
Pruning = vigor.
not pruning= reduced growth, reduced vigor
winter pruning= increases vigor
summer pruning= opens canopy, thins crop load, and reduces vigor
prune it in the winter.
in the summer if you see "suckers" fresh shoots that are vegetative and verticle cut them. ideally, depending on how the tree is established. there are 1-3 "leaders' large verticle branches (think trunk, support like)
the lateral branches off it then have fruiting branches. depending of the type of fruit will depend on the kind of pruning. if it was a red delicious tree the fruit is born on spurs directly on the branches. so reading up on it helps.
its good that you are now pruning it, that is one of the best and first steps to re maintaining a tree.
when pruning imagine where there is tons of shading, open it up. you have to have a plan. in our orchard you can see what the pruning was the year before and see how the workers were training it. you got to know what you want.
normally i cut 6 inches back of new growth. they are the brown, non bark, first year wood, the end shoots. i trim those back for also maintain overall balance and space and for direction.
those are called "heading cuts" at the tip of all plants there is a hormone that regulates bud development along the branch. look up Apical Dominance. when it is cut, below that point the buds will form lateral branches. this is why pruning increases vigor, 1 cut= more branches. pruning in the summer will reduce vigor and allow you to see better what branches are shading more productive branches.
when a tree goes into dormancy in the winter the tree remembers how large its canopy was and makes the proper reserves of energy stored in its roots. in the winter you prune, the canopy is less, but there is still the same amount of energy stored in the ground. in spring when the tree wakes up it has more energy than the canopy initally needed= vigorous growth.
the fact you have 5 trees would help in cross pollination if the apple varitety requires it. pruning will be the best way to help vigor. after bloom ~1-2 when they are the size of your pinky. thin the apple clusters so there is 1 apple per cluster. normally during bloom the first bloom is called "King bloom" this will produce the largest fruit. you will notice one little fruit is larger than the rest that is the king blossom. thin the others and keep it. hand thinning is labor intensive, most apple trees abort a majority, but you would want more. we use a chemical spray, you do not have that access. oh Bartlett pears in our orchard, we have to hand thin. its 'fun' i have done it. it gets old very fast.
by reducing excess crop load your fruit will be larger and better quality. fertilizer will help it alot. the fact it has been there 30 years and not maintained lately= poor soil. tree fruit, apples. have very low root density and if you have weeds around the tree this is directly competing for resources. at best an apple tree has a root density of 1 root per square inch. this is very low.
the rule of thumb that the roots is a large as canopy is about right, except when you prune canopy back alot. mostly it looks mirror image to the canopy.
try not to over fertilize, but weeding around the trees will help. normal grass is alright for it provides ground cover and holds in moisture. if there are clover that is better, legumes capture nitrogen in the air and store it. mow that every few weeks and over time you have organic mulch fertilizer.
a balanced fertilizer would be easiest for you. even though trees require different NPK rations at different growth stages.... but maybe miracle grow will be best because it will include micronutrients that tree is probably becoming deficient in.
hopefully the tree is adquately pollinated by local bees, that could be one problem.
you probably have pests, managing them will help the tree. there are direct pests. Codling moth= worm in apple. this is a quarentine pest. so you cannot transport homegrown fruit out of your area.
indirect pests are like aphids. they munch on leaves, this reduces the fruit growth and quality indirectly.... when applying any pesticides or fertilizer, try applying less than the label says and just do many applications every week or so. the fertilizer miracle grow is good because it is both foliar and root. that will help your trees.
let me know if any of this is useful. print it out please. i get questions like this ALL the time at the fruitstand. "wHy is ___" very common. many times its because people inherit the tree when buying property.
if you have a little spare change and you notice pests, i would reccomend contacting a licenced pest control company for they can diagnose what is wrong and apply chemicals properly and reduce leaching or pollution that normal homeowners are oblivious to.
sorry, i have a chip on my shoulder about people who have a thing against farmers using fertilizer and pesticides and blame us for polluting the rivers...... when in reality it homeowners faults.
a good example: water treatment plants are not capable or removing everything from the stuff they recieve. septic systems also eventually leach into rivers or ground water systems/ aquafirs. a new problem noticed. in salmon, as they migrate up the river they morph from marine to freshwater, this is when sexual diamorphism is obvious, meaning males and females look different. the are noticing many males are switching genders... more females than males. the cause? hormone pollutants. the main contributors are women on menopause hormone replacements, then its us on birth control. in our waste there is tons of hormones, even if your are not even medicated your body naturally produces alot. and these hormones do not break down really, and in the water system it appears that it will cause fish to switch, it influences them. see? something no one ever thinks about! granted women are not going to stop peeing, but someone needs to create enzymes to flush into the septic system to break this down, or water treatment plants need to improve. many are not able to filter out many contaminants or some are too expensive to clean.
this link might help you. i have better notes, but to explain on here would be alot of words. if you can find a local WSU extension office an find a master gardner they might be able to help you better. i will try to find more. but later this month or better, in january prune your tree while it is dormant. then thin out the canopy and correct limb placement in the summer when you can visibly see what is happening. oh one more important thing about apical dominance it regulates hormones depending on the angle of the branch. Verticle branches are not going to be fruiting, verticle means the branch up or down. horizontal is more supportive and also vegetative, you never want a branch at 180degrees even because the crook where it connects is weakened, also a sharp angle will weaken it too. the ideal branch angles are at 45 degrees. now in the winter if it is a bit greater than that gently bend it down, imagine how much it will bend with a crop load. if the branch is too flexible, weak and it could become verticle with weight, that is bad. that is called pendant fruit (like the jewlery) in cherries its bad because the tree stops or reduces sending nutrients to the fruit and they are smaller.
also when pruning you will strengthen the branches and cause them to thicken in their 2,3 and beyond growths..... but again find out what kind of fruit you have because fruit is born on different parts and different ages of branches.... its more complex. this is the perfect year to understand and gain REAL CONTROL of your trees, what you were doing before was good, if you knew what you were doing it would of been better, but now it the time, because you cannot correct a tree or improve its health in one cutting, or in one year, it takes time.... this is why we maintain every year otherwise it gets out of Balanca and control fast.
oh just remembered another thing about possible reduced production. we prune for BALANCE because tree fruit ALTERNATE BEAR, this means they have a On year and an Off year. on= high production, off= low production, rest, recovery from on. pruning helps reduce the load on the ON year to keep it average and prevent tree from resting, and in the Off year the pruning is vigorous. we are constantly trying to manipulate the cycle, because a tree is always in this cycle. some varities are more obvious in it. golden delicious are, but then they are also always high producers every year..... d'anjou pears are very strong alternate bearing, even this year we were short, 700 bins this year vs. 800 last year. so this could also be a reason for little fruit. again pruning and fertilizer is the cure. you have to have a yearly management plan in place. tree fruit is high maintainence. urban people underestimate this, they think occasional attention like gardening or for ornamental trees is enough, nope.
well class is over, sorry about the huge post. you asked. and without knowing much about what you have i tried to tell you everything. who knows? maybe others on this thread have backyard tree fruits too.
this site should help some....
http://gardening.wsu.edu/text/treef.htm
our family orchard has been around since 1905. maybe longer, that is just the date of the Deed.....
www.millororchards.com its not recently updated i been busy lately to state that we are closed for the season. slowly i am trying to put informational stuff about tree fruit on it. please explore, its not complete. i built it from scratch, been self teaching myself how to use dreamweaver and css....
Thank you thank you! I will take a look at your links, and I have this entire post saved so I can re-read it all! So pruning and fertilizer, there are no weeds around my trees, but there is healthy grass and clover. Now around the cherries there are lots of wild climbing rose, and some other type of invasive tree/bush... "These will be removed." In 3 years my property went from massively overgrown, to 90% maintaned... Just these fruit trees to help along.
