Severely overgrown apple trees,,turn them back to fruit producers?

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sportbikerider78

sportbikerider78

Minister of Fire
Jun 23, 2014
2,493
Saratoga, NY
I have about 10 large apple trees. They have been completely unkept by the previous land owners. They have a large central trunk of about 12-15 inches and 20-30' tall.

Is it possible to hack these back down to size? Will it die if I just cut the main trunk down?

I know nothing of fruit trees (or any trees) and have never done anything like this. I read some articles online that say you have to leave 1 branch to promote photosynthesis.

Any experience?
 
I have the exact problem here. Hoping to get some good info from your thread!
 
Yes they can be pruned back into shape, but this is a multi-year process. By the sound of it these are full size trees. If so, they will never be dwarfs, but you may be able to bring them down a bit in size. Don't lop off the whole top of the tree (pollarding). That will shock the tree and it will start producing water sprouts all over the limbs.

The first goal should be to open up the tree's interior to admit more light. Remove branches that crisscross each other and/or shade other parts. You want to also identify what is new growth and what is no longer producing. Take out old growth with no fruit spurs, but not all at once. Get rid of down hanging branches too. Take off no more than a third per year. Read up and learn how to identify young growth on the tree that will be the future fruit bearing branches. You want to encourage them by opening them up to light, but pay attention to where they are heading as they grow. If it looks like it will be crossing another main limb or potential shoot, you may need to keep it shorter, leaving just a few fruit spurs on it.

http://www.weekendgardener.net/how-to/prune-apple-trees.htm
 
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God Lord. I guess my husky extension saw will get quite the workout.

Great advice...thanks! :)

Everything I read says early April is the time to do it, so that is why I'm asking now.
 
I would do it now. We prune here typically in January with a follow up light sucker pruning in July.

"The best time to prune apple trees is in late winter or very early spring before any new growth starts."
 
IMAG3740.jpg
I'm no expert, but just gave mine a HEAVY trim, this will help you get an idea. Embarrassed I let it go so long, Still have a few tall shoots to deal with.

Begreen, feel free to critique, I know you've done this a long time, and I don't want to show a bad example.
The damage:


IMAG3741.jpg
 
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That's quite a haircut for one year. I haven't done it for a long time. Still learning. I went to a class a few weeks back that's all. It looks like you left some long skinny young branches there. They need trimming back, some maybe as far as the first side branch. Otherwise it will be down on the ground when weighed down with apples. Here's a rough idea.

IMAG3740.jpg
 
Check the pH on your soil. A friend of mine in NH recommends doing heavy liming of the root system to get the pH in balance (our soils tend to be acid). If the soil is too acid the trees will not fruit
 
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sportbikerider78 said:
God Lord. I guess my husky extension saw will get quite the workout..
Click to expand...


Once you get them in shape, you can add /change varieties by Grafting. Fun stuff.

begreen said:
That's quite a haircut for one year. I haven't done it for a long time. Still learning. I went to a class a few weeks back that's all. It looks like you left some long skinny young branches there. They need trimming back, some maybe as far as the first side branch. Here's a rough idea.

[/ATTACH]
Click to expand...

Thanks BG!.
 
When you cut back the young growth be sure to leave at least a couple fruit spurs on the remaining branch segment.
 
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A few of my trees only have about 4 branches and they are all high up...and none look like new growth. I need to reduce the entire height and that is comprised of just the trunk. I can add some pics if that helps.
 
sportbikerider78 said:
That would be great. Can I do bananas and grapefruit? :)
Click to expand...

Hahahaha...the pro's can do cherries/ peaches ect. or multiple citrus on the same tree. If you zoom in you can see where the pink plastic tape is from this years' additions. If one takes I'll cut everything in front to make a new variety branch. The orange taped ones in the back are old red/gold delicious grafts for pollination.
 
I know nothing of fruit trees (or any trees) and have never done anything like this. I read some articles online that say you have to leave 1 branch to promote photosynthesis.

Any experience?
Click to expand...

You should know about the collars of branches, when you prune. They look like this:
upload_2015-3-28_19-25-8.jpeg
pruneapples4d.jpg


It's best to make sure that you don't harm the collar of the branch when you prune, nor use any tar or material to cover up the wounds in the tree, the tree will heal itself. The other diagram is an indication of what branches you should remove during this process. Pruning properly will take about three years. Don't attempt to cut all the branches the first year, do it a little at a time over several years. Best with an older tree.
 
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Apple wood is also great for use in charcoal smokers. Toss a fist sized chunk of apple wood on top of the charcoal, and enjoy the resulting aroma/taste in whatever you're smoking.
 
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If you're able to you can make or buy a ladder for apple picking. They look like this: Many people use them and tie the top rungs to the trees to prune and to pick.
Apple_Picking_Ladder.jpg
 
I have ladders. I also have a smoker. What I don't know is how to half the height of an apple tree w/o killing it.

Ya'll have ADD or something? :p
 
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No I don't have an attention deficit disorder, there is no way that I know of where you can cut half the length of a full grown tree without bringing about its early demise. Anyone with any miracle solutions to cutting a tree in half without it dying, please contact me.
 
It may not die, but it will go into shock and survival mode. That usually means suckering like crazy.
 
Actually Charlotte, severely cutting an Apple, or any other tree, will not necessarily kill it. It's called coppicing / pollarding and it's probably what the OP needs to do.

Hey Sportbike, you may have to cut very far down and rely on new shoots coming up that could be grafted if there are no low branches to work with. You could Identify the apple type or types each tree has this year and use them as graft stock for sprouts coming up from the less desireable ones you cut back to stumps, if that makes sense. Cutting halfway might produce shoots that would eventually produce fruit the tree had in the past. Somewhere very low on the tree is a graft union from where the tree was spliced onto a rootstock. any root suckers/sprouts from the base will be from the rootstoock and will not produce a pretty or tasty apple, Sorry for contributing to the derail,I do have ADD!;)

I looked for specific sites for coppicing apples, but found only ones that describe coppicing in general that mention apples and other fruit trees.Let us know how you do, and good luck!

http://vergepermaculture.ca/blog/2014/03/31/coppicing/
 
This doesn't make any sense Osagebow, I know about pollarding and coppicing and it doesn't work well for old apple trees in more northerly climates. You may as well plant dwarf fruit trees for the years it takes for the coppiced fruit tree to finally bear any apples, if it does at all, it may just throw up shoots and die off especially if you don't look after the new growth. And the asker lives in a place where trees mature much more slowly than they do in VA. This guy will be waiting for apples for more than ten years depending on the type of apple tree he's coppicing. For me this is no solution to his problem.
 
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Charlotte987 said:
This doesn't make any sense Osagebow, I know about pollarding and coppicing and it doesn't work well for old apple trees. You may as well plant dwarf fruit trees for the years it takes for the coppiced fruit tree to finally bear any apples, if it does at all, it may just throw up shoots and die off especially if you don't look after the new growth. This guy will be waiting for apples for a good ten years or more depending on the type of apple tree he's coppicing. For me this is no solution to his problem.
Click to expand...
I meant if he has to cut them down to the ground he can pick a sucker and graft an upper branch from another tree to it, especially if it is a cool antique variety.

https://ask.extension.org/questions/140114#.VSLCffnF8TM
 
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