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  • From: Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Summer Pruning
  • Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 14:41:33 -0400


> I also look at the spacing between the larger limbs. At something like 2-3' above a joint I like to see the limbs 1' apart, and higher up I like to see the limbs 2-3' apart.

Could you rephrase that, Scott? I don't quite understand.

It may be hard to get this across without pictures. Its just a rough measure of how much spacing I like to see between the larger limbs. I should have mentioned that my trees are nearly all pruned to something like a vase shape and are 6-8' tall. They may be partial vases in the sense that a corner or a side may be missing; a few of the apples are in fact just Y's due to very close spacing of 1'. Most of the major branching occurs at around 2-3' above the ground: the central stem goes off in several directions. At around 2-3' above that (i.e. 5' off the ground) I want each prong of the vase to be at least 1' apart from the other prongs, and toward the top I like to see each major branch more like 2-3' apart.

Rather than taking my numbers literally, I would instead say the best thing is to look at how far apart the various structural branches are at different heights, and make your own scale up over time as to what is the best distance, by observing how much light is getting into the tree. If they are too close, simply remove one. For my first five years I left too many of these structural branches on my pears and plums, which made the trees too dense.

Re: the backyard orchard culture technique, I am overall very happy with the closely-spaced rows method but I did do them a bit too close in some cases. Dwarf apples can be 2' apart and peaches are fine at 3', but I would say full-sized apricots, pears and plums are best at 4'. The vase limb spacing guidelines above I also apply between different trees in a hedge (or a 4-in-1-hole): if a limb on one tree is too close to a limb on a neighbor tree, take out one of the two limbs.

Scott




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