Zootal,

Do you really want to keep you big, old Apple tree? Whether it bears
fruit or not?

If the answer to both of those questions is yes, I suggest you look
upon the tree as having undergone masive surgery, with a near death
experience thrown in. It is a mature tree that has had almost half of
its energy annihilated in one foul sweep, the sucker growth is its
attempt to recover from such a shocking experience. For any tree to
successfully compartmentalise wounds of that size, quickly enough to
prevent any infection from opportunistic bacteria, is a tremendous
feat. For an old Apple to still be alive after what looks to be between
two and five years after the fact says something about that tree.

The Apple seems to have had a show of foliage this summer- I would say
a bit thin, but not sparse. The overall shape of the crown, although
mainly secondary growth, could be worse, asthetically speaking, it has
a hole at the top at the mid-section, and what looks to be a few
straggly branches at the base of the crown.The suckers are an eyesore,
indeed, the result of a foul deed- what Alex Shigo says is a crime
against nature (to top a tree).

At most, if it were my tree, and I appreciated its character and
presence, and wanted it to have a chance at looking handsome again, I
would resist the urge to remove some of the suckers, for two more
years, and lay a generous amount of some lovely, well rotted mulch
around the base of the Apple- at least to the outer edge of the tree's
crown. Again, I would resist the urge to shape this
not-quite-as-dynamic-as-it-once-was-Apple into something more pleasing
to my eye and sense of what this tree should look like. If it is dry,
then I would water it, not excessively, but enough.

However, unable to resist leaving the tree be, I would have a nose
around, check out the condition of the main stem,(sound? Not?), deeming
it sound I would climb the tree, and cut those stubs back to the
branch- not flush, slight angle along the markings given by the base of
the branch/stub-, and carefully remove any dead or diseased branches.

Then I would leave it alone, apart from the odd check for rot, etc.,
for two full years; perhaps a raking and an adding of mulch.

I might plant a couple of climbing Rose bushes that offered a beautiful
fragrance, and encourage them to climb the Apple.

If, after two (or more) years the Apple is still alive, then I would
look to removing perhaps one out of three of the really busy sucker
clusters whilst keeping an eye on the shape of the whole crown, and the
possibilities of growth directions, so that I removed the least number
of branches to encourage the crown to grow into the shape it offers
naturally combined with what is visually more attractive to my eye.

Then I would repeat the whole thing.



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.