Another Pruning Year, another pruning question...

[ducks4you]

(This is an email I sent to Mid-American Gardener, University of IL, central IL. I thought I'd also post it here. )
I need help with my 2014 fruit tree pruning. I have 3 apple trees, 2 peach trees, 2 Montmorency cherry trees and one Bartlett pear tree. I had NO fruit in 2012—remember, the freeze, and then, the drought? I finally pruned them all, first time, early March, 2013 and most of the trees flourished. One peach tree and one Golden Delicious apple tree are really old and I am worried that my neglect may have permanently harmed them.

(See this Photobucket album, 2014 Tree Pruning.)

http://s611.photobucket.com/user/ducks4you_2009/library/Gardening photos General/2014 Tree Pruning?sort=3&page=1

This old peach tree is ½ the size it was in 2012, but it looks really healthy, with numerous winter buds and it produced a ton of peaches last year, so much so that 3 limbs broke late summer.

This old Golden Delicious apple is ¼ of it’s size in 2012. Several large limbs died from the drought, I pruned them off last Spring, still it produced a lot of apples last year, but it broke three small limbs from the weight. Right now it has one small, dead limb but there are buds where it overhangs my tool shed. However, I’m wondering if it is dying.

How would you go about pruning the apple tree and the peach tree?

I have read to prune them in late February to early/mid March, but this year has been SO COLD, I’m not so sure about that.

 

[journey11]

You would be surprised how much pruning an apple tree can take. I inherited two overgrown apple trees that had never ever been pruned and were planted only 12 feet from each other (they must have thought they were dwarf, but they are standard.) They were growing into each other and choking out all the sunlight. I really hacked them both back, figuring if I killed them it would be no real loss. I took out a lot of large limbs from the middle to open them up, some like 5 or 6" in diameter. First year they didn't bear but a handful of apples, but they came back and did awesome the next year and since. Now it's just maintenance. It was worth it to take out all the tangled mess and open them up. You should drive through a large apple orchard some time and see what they do to those trees! You would think it looked terrible, but it makes for better yields, bigger apples and easier picking.

Yours will grow back with a lot of water sprouts at first. You can pick a couple to keep and let them develop into new main limbs eventually. It's not ideal, of course, but it will do. It's good to keep those limbs from getting too long so you'll have less risk of breakage. Just knock 'em back a bit. They can take it. I try to keep my apples open and spread out like spokes on a bicycle, nothing touching or overlapping.

It's a shame your peach tree got so much damage. You really had it looking nice in the pic where it is blooming. You might want to maybe keep it so you still have some peaches while you get a replacement started. Peaches don't regenerate like apples do. Sorry.

You can prune now. It won't hurt that it is cold. January/February is when I do mine. Just got to get them before they start budding up. Then wait until it's a little warmer if you're going to spray dormant oil. Mine will get sprayed once it starts pretending to be spring, here in a week or so, as the wind allows.

 

[Smart Red]

My local garden center has a weekly radio show. She just mentioned she expected everyone had already pruned their fruit trees. HAH! The only really nice day was the one I was running around looking for solutions to my frozen water problems.

You should need very little pruning. Cut off the broken limbs and cut off any water sprouts. That should be enough after all the pruning you already did. Remember, if you have fruit-heavy branches, you should prop the branches up during the growing period so they don't break. Also, if you have to trim some branches off that leave your tree lopsided, you can 'train' a water sprout to be a fruit-bearing limb by putting a weight near the end to get it bending sideways. Later you can stick a wedge of wood between the trunk and the limb to insure a good, strong angle for holding heavy loads.

In general, water sprouts will never bear fruit and should always be removed as soon as possible -- by digging a bit into the limb they are growing from or you will end up with two sprouts for every one you remove. If you can get a water sprout growing sideways, it will become a fruit-bearing branch in time. Good luck!

 

[ducks4you]

Thanks so much!! Kinda gulped at the report on the peach tree. I guess I'll just have to watch and see what happens. I have a 5yo peach in another location, and it gave me about a dozen peaches in 2013, so I'll still have them. What should I watch for in the peach tree before I have to chop it down?

 

[journey11]

It should still bear on the limb that you have left. It will just look a little funny and might be a little more susceptible to bugs/disease if it got torn up badly when it broke. No real reason to chop it down until it would appear to be dying.

On those apple water sprouts, it will take some time to get them big enough to bear, 3-4 years or so, once they start making lateral branches. Manipulating them like Red suggested is a good idea. Everywhere you've got a cut or lost a limb, it should give you plenty of sprouts to choose from, coming out close to where you cut. Just thin them out to the best 2 or 3 to be your new scaffold branches. The next year after that cut the tips back leaving a foot or so of the sprout, paying attention to where the buds are pointing at the end of where you cut it because that's the direction the laterals are going to go. Try to get them going out and away from the center and away from possibly intersecting with other branches.

Good luck!

 

[ducks4you]

These are great pieces of advice, folks--THANKS!!
RE: the apple tree, the right (South) limbs that were cut off bc they died, produced only 2 water spouts in 2013. I am thinking that I will cut back where it overhangs the tool shed so that that limb isn't too heavy. What about cutting back to the trunk with those other limbs that are dead at the ends?
RE: the peach tree. I should take some pictures bc on the limbs that are left it is brightish burgandy and the buds are swelling. Crossing my fingers on it. I haven't ever used any dormant spray, but I like this tree and it's fruit well enough to invest in it THIS year. So...taking your advice about the pruning, should I look for the next warm day--probably next Sunday bc we're back in the deep freeze This Week--should I also apply dormant spray on the same day?

 

[catjac1975]

From your photos the trees look to me like they need a lot of pruning. The rule is to cut no more than 1/3 back a year until you get the trees under control. Winter dormancy is the time to prune and use dormant oil spray.

 

[journey11]

RE: the peach tree. I should take some pictures bc on the limbs that are left it is brightish burgandy and the buds are swelling. Crossing my fingers on it.

That's a good sign. You should get some fruit!

I usually wait for a pleasant day to be outside, but just as long as you get to it while it's still dormant. I figure you still have a couple of weeks left yet.

You're right, it would be good to cut back that lopsided limb a little. Just eyeballing it from the pic, if it were me, I'd cut it right about where it lines up (in the pic) with the second shed window from the left, where it starts to branch out into a bunch of multiple branches there. (Does that make sense? ) I just wonder what killed those other limbs though...hope it doesn't take out the rest of your tree. Go ahead and cut them back at least until you find some live wood. If you don't get any apples off of it this year, it may have had too much of a shock, losing so many limbs, but it could bear next year.

 

[ducks4you]

Agreed about cutting where the 2nd shed window lines up with the overhanging limb.
We had a drought winter (2011-2012) and then a severe (for us) drought in the summer of 2012. I lost a younger pear tree, but I didn't think that THIS old tree, with it's deep roots, would have any trouble. When I pruned a year ago I was kinda shocked that there was so much dead wood on it.
That answers my question--cutting back on the stubby limbs until I reach live wood. I've been "raising the crown" on a lot of my pine trees. The previous owner got a great deal and planted like 45 of them on the perimeters! I cut those close to the trunk. I was SO AFRAID to prune this apple tree that I didn't cut as close as I really wanted to.
After our plunge into the arctic (again) this week, I'll be ready to prune my fruit trees. Thanks again for the great advice.

 

[ducks4you]

Here are couple of more photos. This is the old apple tree...

This is a picture of the buds on my old peach tree.