Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
YES! Snow may be gone shortly. Ya--hoo!
Osceola, on pruning wild apples of course cutting away the dead branches which puts bugs and molds and maybe even a disease further from the tree is always a good thing. Let me premise this with I have zero training in pruning and repeat that mostly negative things have happened when I did prune mature wild apple trees. In some cases it was just plain bad pruning but in others it was not so bad or so we thought.
Once a tree is formed it evidently is pretty harsh on it to try to change it much. I wouldn't say never prune but would need an awful good reason to prune live parts off of a mature overgrown tree. Here are reasons I might be prompted to trim live parts off of a mature wild tree.
--If a tree looked to be shading itself out and hadn't produced many apples in two years or more and others around it did would be one reason with the goal being to let light in to fewer branches so they might produce fruit. If the tree was full but producing well which is the case with many here then I wouldn't even consider pruning it.
--If apple trees began blowing over from wind at an increased rate then I would consider thinning the remaining trees to reduce the wind to sail effect that a very full tree likely causes.
--If a tree grows 4 ft. tall and then the main leader runs parallel to the ground for twenty feet. I might prune it just after its turn at the four feet height or bend the leader to the ground and gently hinge if needed (above the four ft. height) and then cover the leader part that is on the ground every few ft. to maybe result in starting new trees.
--When two apple trees are growing too close to one another and they both are doing poorly, rather than prune them I have just picked the most dominant and cut the other to the ground. The deer keep the cut tree from getting in the face of the saved tree.
There are many good books on pruning and as I recall they say not to cut more than 30% of the tree per year, When it comes to mature wild apple trees I'd go with no more than 10% per year and again even then only if the tree showed a strong reason that pruning was required.
If anyone on the forum has pruned wild apple trees and had positive results, please show or tell us what your pruning goals were and what results you enjoyed.
And again on finding new trees yesterday sixty-five steps from my barn a "new" wild apple tree was discovered. It is covered in grape vines and has a six inch ash growing inches from it as well as buckthorn all around it.
It is amazing that a wild apple tree with such a wide trunk as this one, maybe 14 inches wide, literally sixty-five steps from where we live has gone unnoticed all these years. It just shows that for those of us with properties where wild apple trees live likely have many around us that we have not yet discovered.
Osceola, on pruning wild apples of course cutting away the dead branches which puts bugs and molds and maybe even a disease further from the tree is always a good thing. Let me premise this with I have zero training in pruning and repeat that mostly negative things have happened when I did prune mature wild apple trees. In some cases it was just plain bad pruning but in others it was not so bad or so we thought.
Once a tree is formed it evidently is pretty harsh on it to try to change it much. I wouldn't say never prune but would need an awful good reason to prune live parts off of a mature overgrown tree. Here are reasons I might be prompted to trim live parts off of a mature wild tree.
--If a tree looked to be shading itself out and hadn't produced many apples in two years or more and others around it did would be one reason with the goal being to let light in to fewer branches so they might produce fruit. If the tree was full but producing well which is the case with many here then I wouldn't even consider pruning it.
--If apple trees began blowing over from wind at an increased rate then I would consider thinning the remaining trees to reduce the wind to sail effect that a very full tree likely causes.
--If a tree grows 4 ft. tall and then the main leader runs parallel to the ground for twenty feet. I might prune it just after its turn at the four feet height or bend the leader to the ground and gently hinge if needed (above the four ft. height) and then cover the leader part that is on the ground every few ft. to maybe result in starting new trees.
--When two apple trees are growing too close to one another and they both are doing poorly, rather than prune them I have just picked the most dominant and cut the other to the ground. The deer keep the cut tree from getting in the face of the saved tree.
There are many good books on pruning and as I recall they say not to cut more than 30% of the tree per year, When it comes to mature wild apple trees I'd go with no more than 10% per year and again even then only if the tree showed a strong reason that pruning was required.
If anyone on the forum has pruned wild apple trees and had positive results, please show or tell us what your pruning goals were and what results you enjoyed.
And again on finding new trees yesterday sixty-five steps from my barn a "new" wild apple tree was discovered. It is covered in grape vines and has a six inch ash growing inches from it as well as buckthorn all around it.
It is amazing that a wild apple tree with such a wide trunk as this one, maybe 14 inches wide, literally sixty-five steps from where we live has gone unnoticed all these years. It just shows that for those of us with properties where wild apple trees live likely have many around us that we have not yet discovered.
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