Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - [nafex] Re: Spring pruning - apple and grape

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Christopher Mauchline" <mauch1@aol.com>
  • To: nafex@yahoogroups.com
  • Subject: [nafex] Re: Spring pruning - apple and grape
  • Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 16:07:28 -0000

> healthy. It is about 4.5' tall. This winter, a deer (I assume) has
> nibbled the terminal buds off of most of the branches. This
surprised
> me, as I haven't had any deer damage on the crabs or other
ornamentals.
> (It will get a little fence come spring.) The main leader and one
of
> the higher branches retain their terminal buds. How and when
should I
> prune it? We still have snow on the ground, but the sap is rising
in
> the maples. There is also some damage the the trunk, near the
ground.
> It looks like it was swiped with a shovel, but it more likely was
chewed
> on my the neighbor's dog. The cut goes about 1/3 around the trunk,
and
> looks dried up. Should I do anything other than wrap some screen
around
> it to prevent further damage?
Your trunk damage could be rabbit or vole also. I've had good luck
w/ the plastic spiral tree wraps, but I know that others on this
group have not. Its just damage that will have to heal.

You might want to prune the terminal buds, but it depends in part on
what training "Style" you're looking for:

Vase (usually used for stone fruit, but sometimes pome fruit):
http://ssfruit.cas.psu.edu/chapter5/chapter5e.htm

Central Leader:
http://ssfruit.cas.psu.edu/chapter4/chapter4f.htm
(one thing I noticed about this that it does not mention: On a
typical "central leader" write-up it says that "each" scaffold branch
should be seperated from another on the trunk by 5-6 inches. Hmmm.

Modified Central Leader:
Basically Central Leader that you only let get so tall and
then "prune to a weakly growing branch". I'm going to be using this
alot.

French Axe (I believe Ed Fackler used this system extensively):
http://tfpg.cas.psu.edu/french_axe/slide1.htm

> trunk, and encourage the top to spread out. There are buds all
along
> the stem - one for each or last year's leaves. Should I remove
these as
> they swell, or should I leave some leaf growth lower? Is there
anything
> else I ought to do?
Probably the lower buds should be removed. On some varieties of
grapes you might want to leave a few lower buds as an "insurance
policy" for winter kill, but Canadice is fairly hardy. Do you have
your trellis up? Do you plan to use cane or spur training for your
Canadice?

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6

--- In nafex@y..., Ginda Fisher <ginda@c...> wrote:
> My plants came with pruning instructions, but that was a year or two
> ago, and of course I can't find them now. Any advice would be
> appreciated:
>
> I have a jonathan apple tree on M111 that I planted last spring.
It had
> almost no roots, and didn't grow much (above the ground) last year.
> Fortunately, we had lots of rain, and it ended the year looking
> healthy. It is about 4.5' tall. This winter, a deer (I assume) has
> nibbled the terminal buds off of most of the branches. This
surprised
> me, as I haven't had any deer damage on the crabs or other
ornamentals.
> (It will get a little fence come spring.) The main leader and one
of
> the higher branches retain their terminal buds. How and when
should I
> prune it? We still have snow on the ground, but the sap is rising
in
> the maples. There is also some damage the the trunk, near the
ground.
> It looks like it was swiped with a shovel, but it more likely was
chewed
> on my the neighbor's dog. The cut goes about 1/3 around the trunk,
and
> looks dried up. Should I do anything other than wrap some screen
around
> it to prevent further damage?
>
> I also have a 2 year old canadice grape vine. It is about 6' high,
and
> is just one stem, which grew from near the ground last year. (When
I
> viciously removed all the other buds.) I would like to keep it to
one
> trunk, and encourage the top to spread out. There are buds all
along
> the stem - one for each or last year's leaves. Should I remove
these as
> they swell, or should I leave some leaf growth lower? Is there
anything
> else I ought to do?
>
> Thanks,
> Ginda Fisher
> Eastern Mass, zone 6


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~>
Make good on the promise you made at graduation to keep
in touch. Classmates.com has over 14 million registered
high school alumni--chances are you'll find your friends!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/l3joGB/DMUCAA/4ihDAA/VTJVlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page