Pruning my apple trees
For those eagled eyed readers you will see that there has been quite some time between my writing in my Jobs for November post that I was going to prune my fruit trees and today (72 days later) when I actually got around to doing it.
To say I had been avoiding this task is an understatement. Any excuse I could find - the weather, Christmas, the weather again - I would use. But the truth is that it was just such a daunting task. I’ve never had fruit trees before and have inherited a few on my allotment plot at the start of last year which were in desperate need of pruning. So I did what any super-daunted self respecting grower would do and sought some advice from the experts. And by experts I mean specifically this article from Gardener’s World, and the latest episode of the RHS weekly podcast. Armed with my new found knowledge, and my trusty Burgon & Ball loppers, I headed down to the allotment to finally tick this task off my to-do list.
For anyone else who is about to take up the task of winter pruning an apple tree and is a little unsure what to do, here are the top tips that I learned and used as the guiding principles for today’s prune*:
Treat the winter prune like a health check for your tree. Winter pruning is the perfect opportunity to improve the health of your tree by getting rid of any dead, diseased or cankered branches.
Thin out some of the branches to, not just so that the tree can channel its energy into fewer (but hopefully tastier!) apples, but to improve air circulation through the centre of the tree and therefore limit pests and diseases. Whilst its advised to thin out from the centre, it is fine to keep some smaller spurs around the edge - just make sure that they are no longer than 20cm).
Get rid of any crossing branches. Similarly to point 2 this will help to improve air circulation but will also reduce the damage to both of the crossing branches from rubbing together, ensuring a healthier tree all round.
Following the above tips I am pretty proud of the state of my trees now. Not only do they look much neater and healthier, I have hopefully improved their chances of producing a fantastic crop later in the year.
In other apple tree news… At the end of the latest meeting with Nottingham Organics Gardeners I also procured some cuttings from the apple trees of another member: Golden Delicious, James Grieve, and a mystery variety. I was told that these cuttings would make good grafting material so watch this space as I attempt to create my very own Frankenstein Fruit Tree with multiple apple varieties!
*Note: these tips were good for my small trees, if you have something a bit larger it may benefit from being cut back harder!