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nafex - [NAFEX] Re: Cold weather pruning Advice

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  • From: Bernie Nikolai <bnikolai@shaw.ca>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Re: Cold weather pruning Advice
  • Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 23:44:30 -0700 (MST)

Up here in central Alberta it is suicidal to prune apple trees in cold
weather. The less hardy and more marginal a variety is, the more it will be
damaged and/or killed if you prune before green tip. Even ultra hardy crabs
such as Rescue have been severely damaged by pruning in mid February here.
I am well aware that in milder climates you can prune all winter basically.
It appears the pruning cuts "dry out" the tree in severely cold weather
(-30C and colder). I HAVE done minor pruning in January/February for
scionwood purposes, and by carefully coating the cuts with grafting wax
warmed up in my hand, I have avoided any damage. But from my experiences in
cold weather, just don't do it, period. But up here, we don't even consider
it "cold" until it hits well below zero F, and often with a good stiff
breeze from the north. As an example, so far this has been a "banana belt
winter" for me, with the coldest recorded at my orchard of only -32C, or
about -25F. By the way, for the first time in about 5 years I have good
snow cover, and a government meteorologist said recently our 3 year severe
drought is over, not to return for 17 more years! I hope he's right.
Bernie Nikolai
Edmonton, Alberta

At 05:56 PM 2/14/03 -0500, you wrote:
>It is VERY cold in Maine this weekend with temps dipping way below zero. Is
>there any guideline on what temps. are too cold to do pruning? Would like to
>get some in this weekend. Maybe some of the Mainers can tell me what they
>are
>doing. Thanks. Waite Maclin, Cushing, ME.
><HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva"
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">It is VERY cold in Maine this weekend with temps
dipping way below zero. Is there any guideline on what temps. are too cold
to do pruning? Would like to get some in this weekend. Maybe some of the
Mainers can tell me what they are doing. Thanks. Waite Maclin, Cushing,
ME.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
SIZE="2"></FONT></HTML>
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