North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> If you go to 
> http://gardening.about.com/od/treefruits/ig/How-to-Prune-an-Apple-Tree/A-Well-Pruned-Apple-Tree.htm 
> you will see a drawing of a tree that has been cut back and a new leader started.  The top set of scaffolds should be cut off in this drawing so the bottom six branches will be left.


That's a great slide show, Dennis. Thanks for posting the link.

But what would happen if you removed the leader entirely? In that 
drawing, assume that you don't want the tree to get any taller. What 
would happen if you just removed the leader, down to that horizontal 
branch to the left (the seventh scaffold in the picture)?

I suppose you'd get some watersprouts on it, and some other buds would 
try to send up a vertical shoot, but they'd be pretty easy to keep 
pruned off, wouldn't they? No doubt I'm overlooking something, but a 
leader - any vertical shoot, I suppose - is just going to want to get 
taller. If you removed those, and left only the more horizontal 
branches, wouldn't that slow down the upward growth?

I'm learning a lot here, but I've got SUCH a long way to go. :-)

Thanks much,

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
You can't say civilization isn't advancing: in every war they kill you 
in a new way. - Will Rogers