North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Thomas Olenio" <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Hello,

There is a lot of good advice to be found in online extension documents.

Go to Google ( http://www.google.com ) and enter this search term  
"Renovating Old Apple Trees".

Plenty of good reading there.

Later,
Tom


On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 13:22:41 -0700, Dan Durica <dandurica@hotmail.com>  
wrote:

> I have recently taken over stewardship of an antique apple orchard of  
> unknown
> age (trunks are 1-1.5ft in diam.) with 29 standard trees of unknown  
> varieties in
> Madison WI Zone 5a. The orchard probably had not been pruned for 6 or 7  
> years (I'm
> guessing), though the trees were not entirely out of control. Major  
> branches had
> been pruned to within 10 and 15 ft of the ground years ago. Since then
> watersprouts have been growing vigorously, some reaching two or three  
> inches in
> diameter. Last spring we did an initial pruning of the orchard, taking  
> out many
> of the watersprouts and leaving some. We thinned the lower, older  
> branches to
> let in more light and air flow.
>
> Except for the wet season we've had which led to a lot of scab, the  
> orchard
> looks healthier than it did when the branches were so crowded. As well  
> we haven't
> lost any trees to storms, probably because of the pruning and fruit  
> thinning we
> did. We thinned the fruit in the lower branches to one fruit per cluster.
>
> Finally getting to my question--why is there such variation in the size  
> of the
> fruit this year? Some look a little bigger than large crabapples and  
> some on the
> same tree are the size of a softball. Most of the larger fruit are on the
> watersprouts, and the smaller fruit is on the lower branches, leading me  
> to
> believe that the lower wood is not producing well because it's older. Is  
> this
> why, or could it be that the lower wood was more shaded out last year,  
> before it
> was thinned out, and didn't have enough energy stored to produce well  
> this
> season?
>
> I should add that all of the trees had gone into alternate-year bearing,  
> so all
> the trees fruiting this year didn't last year.
>
> The reason I want to know is I was wondering if we should prune to renew  
> the
> lower wood, or if this wood will probably produce more next year now  
> that it has
> more light hitting it.
>
> Dan Durica
>
> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's  
> FREE!
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> nafex  mailing  list
>
> nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
>
>  
>
> **YOU  MUST  BE  SUBSCRIBED  TO  POST!**
>
> All  other  messages  are  discarded.
>
> No  exceptions.
>
> ----
>
> To  subscribe  or  unsubscribe,  go  to  the  bottom  of  this  page   
> (also
> can  be  used  to  change  other  email  options):
>
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
>
>  
>
> File  attachments  are  NOT  stripped  by  this  list
>
> TAKE  STEPS  TO  PROTECT  YOURSELF  FROM  COMPUTER  VIRUSES!
>
> Please  do  not  send  binary  files.
>
> Use  plain  text  ONLY  in  emails!
>
>  
>
> Message  archives  are  here:
>
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/nafex
>
>  
>
> NAFEX  web  site:    http://www.nafex.org/



--
============