North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Del Stubbs <northernlights2n@yahoo.com>]

I am just finished with dormant pruning this year ( May 1st 1/3 of my apple 
varieties
were still dormant - forcast promises above freezing nights tomorrow). The 
most difficult
pruning choices I find are the important long term decisions of main scaffold 
branches.
Since mine are mostly on seedling roots, 5-7 years,  I have practiced letting 
them keep
most branches to feed roots - now it is time to establish the major long term 
branches. 
I start visually choosing a bottom branch, skip several, pick out next, skip 
several,
etc......but by the time I get to the top of the tree I can never remember 
all of  the 6
choices out of, say, 25. A trick that really helped was getting  a handful of 
clothspins.
I clip onto any branch I picture cutting, visually the unclipped ones stand 
out and the
clipped ones look 'cut'. Once a set of choices is made it is easy to change 
to a branch
here or there to see how it all fits. 
Looks like first tree to bloom this spring will be a Pittsen plum, with 
Trailman Crab
coming next, Del

Del Stubbs  http://www.pinewoodforge.com   zone 3   N. MN

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