I have recently taken over stewardship of an antique apple orchard of unknown
age (trunks are 1-1.5ft in diam.) with 29 standard trees of unknown varieties in
Madison WI Zone 5a. The orchard probably had not been pruned for 6 or 7 years (I'm
guessing), though the trees were not entirely out of control. Major branches had
been pruned to within 10 and 15 ft of the ground years ago. Since then
watersprouts have been growing vigorously, some reaching two or three inches in
diameter. Last spring we did an initial pruning of the orchard, taking out many
of the watersprouts and leaving some. We thinned the lower, older branches to
let in more light and air flow.
Except for the wet season we've had which led to a lot of scab, the orchard
looks healthier than it did when the branches were so crowded. As well we haven't
lost any trees to storms, probably because of the pruning and fruit thinning we
did. We thinned the fruit in the lower branches to one fruit per cluster.
Finally getting to my question--why is there such variation in the size of the
fruit this year? Some look a little bigger than large crabapples and some on the
same tree are the size of a softball. Most of the larger fruit are on the
watersprouts, and the smaller fruit is on the lower branches, leading me to
believe that the lower wood is not producing well because it's older. Is this
why, or could it be that the lower wood was more shaded out last year, before it
was thinned out, and didn't have enough energy stored to produce well this
season?
I should add that all of the trees had gone into alternate-year bearing, so all
the trees fruiting this year didn't last year.
The reason I want to know is I was wondering if we should prune to renew the
lower wood, or if this wood will probably produce more next year now that it has
more light hitting it.
Dan Durica
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!
_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
All other messages are discarded.
No exceptions.
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also
can be used to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
File attachments are NOT stripped by this list
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!
Message archives are here:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/nafex
NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.