Boy, someone has been pollarding your apple tree. It's
pretty ugly.

Does that tree produce any apples at all? If it produces
good apples, it's probably worth trying to save. If not,
it's firewood. But it's an old tree, so it probably *could*
grow good apples, if people would quit cutting all of the
fruitwood off of it.

Where are you? There's a group called the "Rare Fruit Explorers."
They probably have a chapter in your area, since you have an
old tree like that. They would probably love to come get cuttings
(scionwood) from your tree to graft onto their trees, and they
could help you rehabilitate your tree.

Email me.

Jan
Homer, Alaska

PS: I took my Master Gardener training from a fruit tree guy
in CA in 1983, then made a living pruning fruit trees for
the next 7 years. Then I moved to Alaska and have been trying
to grow apple trees up here, with pretty good success.

In article ,
"Zootal" wrote:

Unfortunately, this thing is huge and probably past the point where I can
shape it. It's about 100 years old and the trunk is about 3 feet in
diameter, and the branches that split up from the trunk are easily 12". I
hesitate to touch them because they are so big. I can remove the vertical
suckers, and thin out the existing branches - but what else can you do with
a huge old tree? I'll try to post some pics this weekend so you can see what
I'm dealing with. Now that the leaves are gone, it's easier to see what I'm
working with.


"sherwindu" wrote in message
...
The suckers should be removed as they destroy the shape of the tree and
don't produce as much fruit as a lateral branch. You should not remove
more than 1/3 of a tree in any given season. Hopefully, you have enough
lateral branches growing that should be encouraged to grow faster when
the tree re-directs it's energy away from the suckers. Don't do any
cutting
while the tree sap is actively flowing, or that will encourage the tree to
send
out more suckers. Early Winter or late Fall might be the best time for
this
kind of pruning. Try to encourage a single central branch or leader to
direct
the tree
to a more pleasing shape, although with your very old tree that may not be
possible.

Sherwin D.

Zootal wrote:

I have a very large very old apple tree in my back yard. It has not been
maintained much the last few years. It consists of a few main branches
and
hundreds of suckers growing straight up from the branches. Should I
remove
all of the upright growing suckers? I hate to butcher the tree, but it is
in
serious need of some TLC.


--
Bedouin proverb: If you have no troubles, buy a goat.