Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - [NAFEX] pruning/training apples

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: list@ginda.us
  • To: NAFEX <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] pruning/training apples
  • Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 22:33:42 -0500

I have a three year old jonathan on M111. When I ordered it, the vendor (maybe Hilltop?) apologized for not having any big ones left. When it arrived, I marveled at the paucity of roots - one or two threads trailing out of a stick below the graft. It also had some damage to the top from shipping, but I might have headed the tree anyway.

It sprouted well enough, and seems healthy. I had a bit of deer pruning the first winter, and some caterpillar damage the second summer. It is now about 3/4" thick and perhaps 5' tall, of which about a foot is last year's growth. I have some promisingly arranged twigs that I hope will become a low scaffold. I hope to get a second set of scaffold branches going a little higher this year.

My problem is that the leader is flopping to the side, and I'd like to to grow more straight. The tree is staked, but the cloth ties I've used tend to slide down, leaving the top to wave in the wind. any suggestions? Should I tape the tree to the pole? Remove a foot or more from the top and hope it grows back thicker? Apply more nitrogen? Plant a new tree to distract me from this one? (Actually, I do have an Ashmead's kernal on order from Fedco for the spring.)

Thanks,
Ginda Fisher
eastern MA, zone 6




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page