Any tips and advice about cutting back an old apple tree. It was here when we bought the house and I wails say has not been cut back in years. It is much too large it had loads of fruit last yr but all very small. Should I go lightly with the cut back or really go for it. I have only ever had cherrie trees before and they liked a hard prune back every few yrs any hints?

On 29/01/2013 01:21, Plymouth82 wrote:
Any tips and advice about cutting back an old apple tree. It was here
when we bought the house and I wails say has not been cut back in years.
It is much too large it had loads of fruit last yr but all very small.
Should I go lightly with the cut back or really go for it. I have only
ever had cherrie trees before and they liked a hard prune back every few
yrs any hints?

I have the same problem. I am going to have a good hack in the centre
to allow better air flow, but only give a light pruning to the outer
branches. If you really go for it all round you will almost certainly
lose all hope of fruit this year.

--

Jeff

Hi Plymouth, further to the other replies, I'd like to add the following:-
start by removing any diseased or broken branches,
next, any branches that are crossing and rubbing,
then any that are growing towards the centre of the tree,
then thin out the remainder evenly.
This should have removed about the said 1/3.
The problem with old trees is that they tend to make very little new growth (the reason for pruning in the first place)
You might find (depending on variety) that this coming year, if you have removed too much, that it makes alot of new sappy growth. If so, come first week of August, cut these back by 1/3 to an outward growing bud (they will then produce fruit spurs the following spring !!
The eventual aim is to get a balance between new growth and fruit (the fewer the fruit, within reason, the larger they will be. Aim for an 'open' and
'goblet' shaped tree.
regards,
Lannerman.

"Plymouth82" wrote in message
...

Any tips and advice about cutting back an old apple tree. It was here
when we bought the house and I wails say has not been cut back in years.
It is much too large it had loads of fruit last yr but all very small.
Should I go lightly with the cut back or really go for it. I have only
ever had cherrie trees before and they liked a hard prune back every few
yrs any hints?

Over the next few years, prune it back hard. By that I mean to pick a major
branch and to take that back hardin this year, next year pick another major
branch and cut that back.

If you go at it all in one go, you will end up with more new growth than
hair's on a dog's back.

Plymouth82;977486 Wrote:
Any tips and advice about cutting back an old apple tree. It was here
when we bought the house and I wails say has not been cut back in years.
It is much too large it had loads of fruit last yr but all very small.
Should I go lightly with the cut back or really go for it. I have only
ever had cherrie trees before and they liked a hard prune back every few
yrs any hints?

Ther eare many web sites that give clear instructions for pruning all
types of fruit trees. Also for larger apples it's a good practice to
remove about half when fruit first forms.

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:51:53 -0500, wrote:

Plymouth82;977486 Wrote:
Any tips and advice about cutting back an old apple tree. It was here
when we bought the house and I wails say has not been cut back in years.
It is much too large it had loads of fruit last yr but all very small.
Should I go lightly with the cut back or really go for it. I have only
ever had cherrie trees before and they liked a hard prune back every few
yrs any hints?

Ther eare many web sites that give clear instructions for pruning all
types of fruit trees. Also for larger apples it's a good practice to
remove about half when fruit first forms.

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:51:53 -0500, wrote:

Plymouth82;977486 Wrote:
Any tips and advice about cutting back an old apple tree. It was here
when we bought the house and I wails say has not been cut back in years.
It is much too large it had loads of fruit last yr but all very small.
Should I go lightly with the cut back or really go for it. I have only
ever had cherrie trees before and they liked a hard prune back every few
yrs any hints?

Ther eare many web sites that give clear instructions for pruning all
types of fruit trees. Also for larger apples it's a good practice to
remove about half when fruit first forms.

TEST

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:51:34 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:51:53 -0500, wrote:

Plymouth82;977486 Wrote:
Any tips and advice about cutting back an old apple tree. It was here
when we bought the house and I wails say has not been cut back in years.
It is much too large it had loads of fruit last yr but all very small.
Should I go lightly with the cut back or really go for it. I have only
ever had cherrie trees before and they liked a hard prune back every few
yrs any hints?

Ther eare many web sites that give clear instructions for pruning all
types of fruit trees. Also for larger apples it's a good practice to
remove about half when fruit first forms.

TEST1

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:52:54 -0500, Brooklyn1
wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:51:34 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:51:53 -0500, wrote:

Plymouth82;977486 Wrote:
Any tips and advice about cutting back an old apple tree. It was here
when we bought the house and I wails say has not been cut back in years.
It is much too large it had loads of fruit last yr but all very small.
Should I go lightly with the cut back or really go for it. I have only
ever had cherrie trees before and they liked a hard prune back every few
yrs any hints?

Ther eare many web sites that give clear instructions for pruning all
types of fruit trees. Also for larger apples it's a good practice to
remove about half when fruit first forms.

TEST2

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:54:48 -0500, Brooklyn1
wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:52:54 -0500, Brooklyn1
wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:51:34 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:51:53 -0500, wrote:

Plymouth82;977486 Wrote:
Any tips and advice about cutting back an old apple tree. It was here
when we bought the house and I wails say has not been cut back in years.
It is much too large it had loads of fruit last yr but all very small.
Should I go lightly with the cut back or really go for it. I have only
ever had cherrie trees before and they liked a hard prune back every few
yrs any hints?

Ther eare many web sites that give clear instructions for pruning all
types of fruit trees. Also for larger apples it's a good practice to
remove about half when fruit first forms.

TEST3

Sheldon, I can see 6 different posts from you under 2 different names so
your posts are appearing.

On Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:29:00 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote:

Sheldon, I can see 6 different posts from you under 2 different names so
your posts are appearing.

Thanks. My newsreader, Forte Agent, had an upgrade, more a downgrade
with how inept they are. Their tech support is absolutely useless. I
had to figure it out myself. I should know better than to bother with
any on line commodity that doesn't give their phone number, those are
all know nothing phoneys.

"Brooklyn1" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:29:00 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote:

Sheldon, I can see 6 different posts from you under 2 different names so
your posts are appearing.

Thanks. My newsreader, Forte Agent, had an upgrade, more a downgrade
with how inept they are. Their tech support is absolutely useless. I
had to figure it out myself. I should know better than to bother with
any on line commodity that doesn't give their phone number, those are
all know nothing phoneys.

Well I hope your problems are overcome soon. At least your posts are making
it through.

On Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:56:25 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote:

"Brooklyn1" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:29:00 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote:

Sheldon, I can see 6 different posts from you under 2 different names so
your posts are appearing.

Thanks. My newsreader, Forte Agent, had an upgrade, more a downgrade
with how inept they are. Their tech support is absolutely useless. I
had to figure it out myself. I should know better than to bother with
any on line commodity that doesn't give their phone number, those are
all know nothing phoneys.

Well I hope your problems are overcome soon. At least your posts are making
it through.


Agent is an impeccable program with excellent customer support online.
Forte Agent is the archetype of Usenet newsreaders.

And there is always this, which is overflowing with experts on every
version of the program:

alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent

On Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:56:25 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote:

"Brooklyn1" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:29:00 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote:

Sheldon, I can see 6 different posts from you under 2 different names so
your posts are appearing.

Thanks. My newsreader, Forte Agent, had an upgrade, more a downgrade
with how inept they are. Their tech support is absolutely useless. I
had to figure it out myself. I should know better than to bother with
any on line commodity that doesn't give their phone number, those are
all know nothing phoneys.

Well I hope your problems are overcome soon. At least your posts are making
it through.

Forte Agent has tech support via email only, not very efficient. And
today they finally admit that their new upgrade presents multiple
problems. I managed to make it operate at my end via work arounds and
now hope their fiddling doesn't undo all I've accomplished.