North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>]

>Is it possible to top apple trees without the upright branches producing so
many water-spouts?
 I say use sawdust or leaves if you want to produce a N deficiency.  The
trouble is that next year after the sawdust is all broken down, the N will
be available again, and the soil will be even better, so you may get more
growth.  But seems like if you only add things to your orchard that are N
deficient, that you should be able to keep all that excess growth to a
minimum.  Anyway, a slight N deficiency is supposed to make for better fruit
color and keeping quality.

>Is it advisable/inadvisable to top
trees at this time of year?

Now I think you are really asking the right question, and I think the answer
is yes.  I'm sure some summer pruning experts will chime in with real
experience, but I can tell you something I saw once and never again.  They
do this horrible thing to trees here in Tennessee, called "topping".  In the
winter these guys come around with a cherry picker truck and for a big fee
they butcher your shade trees.  The resultant growth is whiplike upright
branches, terribly abnormal looking and a very sad sight.  But once, just
once, I saw the Fosch company top some trees in the summer.  For one thing,
they didn't get right in there and whack them off at main branches, and I
have to wonder if all the leaves didn't hinder them from more conventional
whacking.  Their worked all over the tops of those maple trees, pruning them
as you would a hedge or a bush, so they were reduced by maybe 1/4 or even
1/3.  The next year, I couldn't see anything wrong with those trees.  I wish
now I had studied them longer and harder, as I am sure there must have been
some sign of the pruning in the new growth.  But I think they did far better
than any other shade tree pruning I have seen.    Donna