North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

> I've not had good luck tying branches horizontal.  I know some people on the 
> list have made it work, but for me,it gives too many waterspouts, as you 
> describe.


I wasn't sure if these were actually watersprouts or not, going by the 
description I've read of them. I've heard that you should cut off *all* 
watersprouts, but does that mean I should cut off almost everything 
sprouting from my apricot tree? Yeah, I suppose I got the branches on 
this one MUCH too horizontal, but it does seem to have slowed up - or 
even stopped - the growth of the existing branches (on this particular 
tree, I mean). So what would happen if I cut off all of these vertical 
sprouts and kept them off?


> Also when the branches start to fruit they pull the scaffolds down quite a 
> bit more, lower than you originally tied them.


I've already discovered this. In many cases, I'm having to tie them UP 
now! But it's not just fruit. Pulling the branches more horizontal 
doesn't seem to have made much difference with my plums. They are still 
growing strongly from the end of the branch, and in many cases, the 
weight of that new growth is enough to pull the tip down. (Note that 
this happens when the rest of the branch is pulled down. If it's not, 
the growing shoot grows straight up. There doesn't seem to be a happy 
medium, either.)


> In general, if the trees are already too bushy, I would make thinning cuts, 
> not heading cuts which will add more bushiness.


Yes, I tried that with the plum, during dormant pruning. Perhaps I 
didn't go far enough, though. It's hard for me to cut nice branches off 
a tree.   :-)   (For a beginner, this is really traumatic. But you 
should have heard my elderly mother when I told her I was pruning my 
grapevines. She was aghast, telling me that no one she knew - she grew 
up on a farm - ever pruned their grapevines, and they'd always had 
*plenty* of grapes. Of course, this was nothing compared to the reaction 
when I told her I was thinning the fruit on my trees! Heh, heh.)


> If new shoots emerge where the old ones were cut (which will invariably 
> happen) I would just keep rubbing off the new buds where you don't want them.
>   


Yes, hmm,... well, here's the problem: This is another of those things 
that sound good, but I have trouble with in practice. I'm working in my 
yard every day, and I'm always behind (OK, I know I'm slow, but I'm 
CONSTANTLY behind). So most of the time, I don't catch these things that 
quickly. Before I know it - especially now, when we've had a lot of rain 
- everything is overgrown.

I mean to train the emerging shoots on all my trees, too, but just 
yesterday, I noticed some new shoots that had grown straight up and were 
already too set (and too brittle) to move much. I swear I'd have to 
spend all day every day keeping up with them. Which means that I'd be 
even further behind on everything else. I don't know how you guys with 
all the fruit do it!


> I've had the most difficult time pruning peach trees.  My first peach tree 
> (grown up now) I positively butchered.


Oh, that's scary! I'd never even SEEN a peach tree before I planted 
these! And needless to say, I don't have the slightest idea what I'm doing.

And unfortunately, the oriental fruit moths have done more 'summer 
pruning' on these trees than I have! Still, three of the four have lots 
of peaches set on (I had to thin them heavily). I don't know why the 
fourth is different, if it was something I did - or didn't do - or not. 
Well, if it's just a matter of being less than optimal, I can live with 
that. As long as the peach trees can live with it, too.  :-)


> One other thing I've learned is to try to pick the smaller diameter shoots 
> for scaffolds.  When I first read about this technique, I thought, baloney.
>   


Usually, my problem is the lack of branches for scaffolds. I don't often 
have many choices. I look at pictures of the perfect pruning techniques, 
but my trees don't look like that even BEFORE I prune. Sometimes, I just 
keep branches because I don't have any others! I suppose I could cut off 
these few branches and the tree would sprout more, but that's hard for 
me to do. Well, I've just about planted my last tree, anyway, since I've 
run completely out of room. I'll have to struggle on with what I've got.

I don't want to sound too pessimistic, though, since I've got plenty of 
fruit set on this year. Not as much as I'd hoped in some cases, but 
plenty enough, anyway. I tend to want perfection, but really, I can't 
complain. I've been gorging on strawberries the last couple of days, and 
that looks like only the start of a fruit-filled year. This is fun, you 
know?

Thanks for the advice, Mark!

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends. - Oscar Wilde