I have a semi-dwarf apple tree, about 8 years old, on M7 rootstock, I
think. It is about 15 feet tall, pruned as a modified central leader. It
is heavier on the south side because it is growing away from a big maple
tree that crowds it a little on the north.

It has way too many small branches, and apple production has been declining
for the past couple of years. There are only maybe a 6 or 8 apples this
year, and I'm willing to pull them all off to help break the cycle of the
apple maggots that cause so much damage every year. This tree should be
able to produce 150 or more apples every year.

I'm looking for information about how to prune the tree to encourage fruit
spur production instead of new wood. All the pruning guides I find on the
web only tell about the importance of training the scaffold branches. I
already know that. I've read about it in a book on pruning espalair or
cordon fruit trees, but that was a long time ago. I dunno if I even
spelled that right. IIRC, summer pruning instead of the usual late winter
pruning promotes fruit spur production.

I am also thinking about air layering one of the many vertical growing
branches to grow an own-root standard apple tree. I already know how to do
that, but I'm not sure if it's too late to start this year to get a good
enough root system to survive the winter. I also don't know how well apple
trees grow on their own roots rather than grafted rootstock -- but I think
it should give a longer lived tree and full sized tree.

Thanks, regards,
Bob

apples grow on old wood stock, not new. very early spring pruning stimulates new
growth while summer pruning is to control size. new wood has to age before spurs
form. those many little small branches are where the apples form. other than
clearing out dead wood and opening up the center, my mother never pruned our large
apple trees. and apples require a spray schedule starting with dormant oil in winter
and every 7-10 days after blossom drop (which is the most important spray) to produce
nice looking unwormy apples.
vertical growing branches suggest pruning has already stimulated water sprouts.
these are removed in mid to late July, not in spring.
if this was a cold wet spring that could be the reason for the lack of apples. other
cultural conditions could contribute to its decline. Ingrid

zxcvbob wrote:
I have a semi-dwarf apple tree, about 8 years old, on M7 rootstock, I
think. It is about 15 feet tall, pruned as a modified central leader. It
is heavier on the south side because it is growing away from a big maple
tree that crowds it a little on the north.

It has way too many small branches, and apple production has been declining
for the past couple of years. There are only maybe a 6 or 8 apples this
year, and I'm willing to pull them all off to help break the cycle of the
apple maggots that cause so much damage every year. This tree should be
able to produce 150 or more apples every year.

I'm looking for information about how to prune the tree to encourage fruit
spur production instead of new wood. All the pruning guides I find on the
web only tell about the importance of training the scaffold branches. I
already know that. I've read about it in a book on pruning espalair or
cordon fruit trees, but that was a long time ago. I dunno if I even
spelled that right. IIRC, summer pruning instead of the usual late winter
pruning promotes fruit spur production.

I am also thinking about air layering one of the many vertical growing
branches to grow an own-root standard apple tree. I already know how to do
that, but I'm not sure if it's too late to start this year to get a good
enough root system to survive the winter. I also don't know how well apple
trees grow on their own roots rather than grafted rootstock -- but I think
it should give a longer lived tree and full sized tree.

Thanks, regards,
Bob



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Hello
I am an backyard apple tree grower. Most of my knowledge comes from
reading and trail and error , a fair amount of error . The majority of my trees
are on dwarf M9 root stock. I do have aGrimes Golden on M7.
Here are a few things to check.
#Most apple trees need to be cross pollinated with a another apple with viable
pollen. Do you another apple tree close by?
# It is good to do a lot of the prunning on dwarf and semi dwarf apple trees
in the late spring and summer.
Fertilizers with high nitrogen content will promote vegitive growth at
the expense of fruit set.
Bill

Bill726 wrote:
Hello
I am an backyard apple tree grower. Most of my knowledge comes from
reading and trail and error , a fair amount of error . The majority of my trees
are on dwarf M9 root stock. I do have aGrimes Golden on M7.
Here are a few things to check.
#Most apple trees need to be cross pollinated with a another apple with viable
pollen. Do you another apple tree close by?
# It is good to do a lot of the prunning on dwarf and semi dwarf apple trees
in the late spring and summer.
Fertilizers with high nitrogen content will promote vegitive growth at
the expense of fruit set.
Bill

My neighbor has a standard size apple tree of unknown variety. I don't
think they get any usable fruit from it, but it blooms and apparently is a
good pollenator for my tree because I've gotten good fruit set in the past.
Also, there are flowering crabapple trees in the neighborood, but not all
that close by.

My tree didn't bloom very good this year, and it was cold and wet while it
was blooming. So it probably didn't get pollenated very well. Especially
with the decline in the honeybee population. That still doesn't explain
the poor blooming.

It looks like the tree is getting a little too much nitrogen, but I don't
give it or the lawn any fertilizer. Plus the tree has to compete with the
grass underneath it for nitrogen. (It probably could use a little
phosphorus, and I have a bucket (it was in a bag originally) of triple
superphosphate in my garage that's been there about 10 years...

I need to thin the inner branches anyway; I'm not sure what the best time
of year to prune them to encourage fruit spur production. I haven't really
pruned the tree at all in several years. It does have some nice
horizontal-growing scaffold branches, and way too many secondary branches.

I think I should probably prune it this month, while the weather is hot and
(hopefully) dry so I don't have to worry so much about fire blight.

My neighbor had to cut down a huge elm tree (Dutch Elm Disease) that was
near the property line on the north east that was probably crowding both my
apple tree and theirs. Now that the elm is gone the yards are a little
more open and that should help.

Best regards,
Bob

I didn't read your post, but I'm always so curious why, if you have the world in
your house via the Internet, must you ask for such intensive questions to be
answered here on Usenet.

Do a search on www.google.com and you will find ten billion places with tons and
tons of information.

Maybe I'm just cranky, but sheesh it is so tiring at times.


On Wed, 02 Jul 2003 23:44:30 -0500, zxcvbob wrote:

I have a semi-dwarf apple tree, about 8 years old, on M7 rootstock, I
think. It is about 15 feet tall, pruned as a modified central leader. It
is heavier on the south side because it is growing away from a big maple
tree that crowds it a little on the north.

It has way too many small branches, and apple production has been declining
for the past couple of years. There are only maybe a 6 or 8 apples this
year, and I'm willing to pull them all off to help break the cycle of the
apple maggots that cause so much damage every year. This tree should be
able to produce 150 or more apples every year.

I'm looking for information about how to prune the tree to encourage fruit
spur production instead of new wood. All the pruning guides I find on the
web only tell about the importance of training the scaffold branches. I
already know that. I've read about it in a book on pruning espalair or
cordon fruit trees, but that was a long time ago. I dunno if I even
spelled that right. IIRC, summer pruning instead of the usual late winter
pruning promotes fruit spur production.

I am also thinking about air layering one of the many vertical growing
branches to grow an own-root standard apple tree. I already know how to do
that, but I'm not sure if it's too late to start this year to get a good
enough root system to survive the winter. I also don't know how well apple
trees grow on their own roots rather than grafted rootstock -- but I think
it should give a longer lived tree and full sized tree.

Thanks, regards,
Bob

animaux wrote:
I didn't read your post, but I'm always so curious why, if you have the
world in your house via the Internet, must you ask for such intensive
questions to be answered here on Usenet.

Do a search on www.google.com and you will find ten billion places with
tons and tons of information.


I did search on Google and found ten billion places with the same unhelpful
information. Trying to refine the search didn't help much; it narrowed
things down to 3 million places with the wrong info. After getting some
information from someone else knowlegable about fruit tree pruning, I was
able to find what I needed. And as far as I know, the thread is still open
for discussion. Why are you trying to steer it off-topic?

Maybe I'm just cranky, but sheesh it is so tiring at times.

So why are you here? Are you just looking for something to be ****ed
about? Maybe you would rather we limit discussions to inane and simple
questions (so you can understand them) -- and the usual flame wars, of course.

If you're not interested in discussing fruit trees, go back to your ongoing
argument about vinegar.

Regards,
Bob