late spring / early summer apple pruning

Discussion in 'Fruit and Nut Trees' started by sluggo, May 25, 2005.

  1. sluggo

    sluggo Active Member 10 Years

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    Hi,

    I have 5 dwarf apple trees growing as double cordons (slanted, maybe it's called a Belgium fence). This is their second full year. This previous winter I did not prune the leader tips back to a bud. Now all the trees have at least two leaders shooting, and I guess they are sort of competing with each other. Not only that, but most of the cordons have an even stonger shoot from the topmost bud. I'm wondering at what point in time I should be pruning these shoots back (side shoots get pruned back in summer, I'm guessing that I should wait a few more weeks until late June). As well, I have a hunch that the two leaders of each cordon will continue to compete even after I prune one back. Should I lop off these top leaders and prune each cordon to the topmost strong shoot? Or is this something best left for the coming winter?

    Secondly, one of the trees is a very slow grower. It's an Annas Reinette, and it grows kind of cool. Like I said, it's slow. But I need to tie it down every two inches, the leader is very thick and has a very strong tendancy to go straight upwards. I should have pruned this back very hard last winter in order to encourage it grow much faster. Would pruning this tree back hard now have the same effect? Or should I wait for next winter?

    btw, I'm getting most of my pruning advice from the Cavendish Encyclopedia Pruning and Training.
     
  2. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    In a nutshell: Head in summer, thin in winter.
     

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