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  • From: Phil Norris <cousinphil@acadia.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] pruning/training apples
  • Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 08:22:01 -0500

Ginda,

I had the same problem with a little King David sapling that I had tied to a single stake last year. I also had an unstaked Jonathan on Bud 9 which seemed bound and determined to grow anyway but straight up.

It is a well known fact that a sapling tied closely to a single stake will tend to bend away from it. This is because the side toward the stake gets less light. In experiments with transparent stakes the bending did not occur. I suggest that you pull out your one stake and drive in 2 or 3 five foot stakes at about a foot and a half radius from the tree. Then use some soft twine to guy the tree at the crucial points which will make it stand up straight. Once the tree will stand straight by itself remove the strings because a stronger root system will develop if the tree is allowed to sway in the breeze. I imagine that the tree will straighten up in one growing season. My King David did. The Jonathan I have had to keep guyed up for several years to nearby rocks and roots and it seems to be doing well even though it looks a little funny. The apples are small but tasty.

Phil

On Monday, March 10, 2003, at 10:33 PM, list@ginda.us wrote:

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

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