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  • From: "kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Apple Pruning Questions
  • Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:45:05 -0500

>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





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