Hello,
My mom has got four apple trees, they've been there for about twenty
years and bear fruit every year but they haven't been pruned for at
least ten years. There's also some sort of fungus growing on them now
so they look pretty messy. I'm hoping to prune them next month and
try to treat the fungus; is it okay to do this myself or do I really
need an expert? My mom doesn't know what type of apples they are,
other than that three are for eating and the fourth is for cooking;
how do I determine what they are?
As always, thanks for the great help here :-)
Gerard [http://homepage.eircom.net/~gerfmcc]

On 11/1/08 11:07, in article ,
" wrote:

Hello,
My mom has got four apple trees, they've been there for about twenty
years and bear fruit every year but they haven't been pruned for at
least ten years. There's also some sort of fungus growing on them now
so they look pretty messy. I'm hoping to prune them next month and
try to treat the fungus; is it okay to do this myself or do I really
need an expert? My mom doesn't know what type of apples they are,
other than that three are for eating and the fourth is for cooking;
how do I determine what they are?
As always, thanks for the great help here :-)
Gerard [http://homepage.eircom.net/~gerfmcc]


I'm just getting interesting pages on music but no pic, Gerard. But is it
possible that your mother's tree has lichen on it? If so, that's actually a
good sign that the air is very clean and pure and you need do nothing at all
to it.
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...h+Images&gbv=2

Speaking generally, old apple trees are said to need careful pruning, taking
off a little each year until you have them as you want them. Take out weak,
dead or crossing branches, working towards a goblet shape that allows air to
circulate and light in. But if in doubt, get someone in who knows what
they're doing.
As to identifying them, are Apple Days held in Eire during the autumn?


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'