The tree has been pruned so that it has 8 - 10 big branches that sprawl
outwards, starting at about 8-10 feet off of the ground. I can't reach
anything on the tree without a ladder. I actually like the tree, I think
I'll let it grow this year and see how it produces - I bought the property a
few months ago, and don't know how the tree will grow or produce. I'll see
if I can find some pics of the tree, maybe some here can look at it and
offer their opinion. It's quite old, the bark has a lot of woodpecker holes
in it and is peeling in places. I'm not sure of the overall health of the
tree.


"sherwindu" wrote in message
...
Unless that huge apple tree (they can easily get to be 30 feet, or more)
has
some very good tasting fruit, I would pull it out and replace it with
dwarfs.
You probably
don't even have a ladder tall enough to get at the top of the tree. If
the
fruit is special
to you, take a branch off and graft it to a dwarfing rootstock.

Sherwin D.

Zootal wrote:

Thanks to all that responded. My trees were purchased at costco, and
consist
of 2 cherries, 2 pears, 2 apricots, 2 peaches, 3 apples, 2 plums...and
I'm
missing something but there were 13-14 trees, all semi-dwarf. I read
somewhere to put them 10-15 feet apart also, so I settled on 12 feet
because
they fit better into the space I wanted to put them - I have a *huge*
apple
tree that dominates a good chunk of my yard.

BTW, how big can apple trees get? This thing is huge - trunk about 3 feet
diameter, branch spread about...um...30+ feet or so. And each year it
drops
a bazillion apples. Which cause me to ask - what was I thinking when I
bought 3 more apple trees? :P

"Dwayne" wrote in message
...
I ordered 10 different dwarf/semi-dwarf fruit trees after moving here (4
apples, 2 pears, 2 peaches,and two cherries), and the instructions said
put
them 10 to 15 ft apart. If they try to bother each other, you can
always
prune them in a way to control how they grow. I think your spacing will
be
fine.

Dwayne

"Zootal" nousenetspam at dead ice dot us wrote in message
...
I have about a dozen "semi-dwarf" fruit trees, each planted 12 feet
apart.
Does anyone have experience with such trees? Did I plant them too close
together?

Also, when initially planting them as bare root trees, how severely
should they be pruned? And once they start to bud out, is it too late
to
prune them?