Apple pruning advice - salvaging ugly tree

[fruitbat]

Hi everyone,

I recently ‘adopted’ a friend’s young container-potted apple tree, which looks like an absolute mess due to (I think) a combo of breakage & really awful initial training / topping. It looks like the stockist made an attempt to go for an ‘open’ shape, but (in my zone) the apple variety & rootstock are both much more suited to a central leader, which I would like to aim for, or maybe espalier. The tree is therefore trying to establish new leaders on the side branches, which is obviously not going to end well.

I’d love your advice on whether the current situation can or should be salvaged - that is, should I be trying to intensely prune / rehab this tree; should I do something more drastic like a severe heading cut and see if I get anything workable; should I leave the tree as is and try to create a better version of a ‘vase’ from what I have to work with; or should I just take some cuttings, graft onto new rootstock, and call it a day? The last option would be the least preferable to me - the main stem is clean and sturdy, the roots are well-established, and the even produced one huge, delicious apple last year.

I’m currently growing everything in containers (all my plants are thriving) as we live in an apartment & only have use of a large south-facing patio, and we’ll likely be moving in the next year or two, so that’ll then give me the freedom to decide whether I’ll keep some varieties growing on in containers, or whether they’ll carefully get planted. I grow several heirloom apples (as well as cherries, fruit bushes, etc) and I’m at a good place in terms of potting substrate, pot size, irrigation, etc - in essence, please disregard the ‘in a pot’ component for all intents and purposes.

As far as this specific tree goes, it’s a ‘Spartan’ on M26 rootstock and was sold to my friend in 2022 as a 2-3 year old tree, which seems right to me based on its current size.

That break / lop job / atrocity at the vertex is ugly but it’s fully healed over - still, the mess of the cut (or break) and split bark makes me think it’ll be a constant risk / entry point for pests and diseases, so I know I’ll have to at the very least clean that up.

Alright, brace yourselves for a photo of this poor ugly thing - since I’m new here, additional photos in comments:

Thank you for any advice, suggestions, etc.

• Ari

[fruitbat]

(A closer look from the top down.)

[fruitbat]

FYI, the dead lavender isn’t my doing… that’s the ‘high quality’ landscaping that the landlord pays for…

[DennisD]

When you top like that allowing a vertical crack to develop and leave the wound unsealed you get rot which is likely to get worse. If it were mine I would make one cut on a non horizontal plane removing everything except that one lower left branch and tie it upward on a cane as the new vertical leader. The let it grow a number of scaffolds before topping.
Dennis
Kent wa

[fruitbat]

Thank you. I agree, I can’t leave the top as-is.

I don’t know if I can get away with getting that lower left branch vertical (or close to) without it snapping, it’s about thumb thickness and the branches felt pretty brittle even when sap was flowing. But I’ll see how it goes!

[DennisD]

Bend it upward now above 45 degrees after you cut, tie it in place, then when springtime arrives and it begins to grow you can nudge it more each week until it sits your desire. Don’t try to get to vertical too quickly
Dennis

[fruitbat]

Thanks Dennis, I appreciate the advice!

[DennisD]

Your cut should be at a 45 degree angle to vertical so it will leave a large diameter wound, but it will drain better. Then seal it against the winter rain with latex paint. Eventually the wound will heel over. Good luck
Dennis

[ukie]

Looks like your tree has a perfect structure for open center shape, so I would leave it at that, just address that top wound issue somehow (or even leave it alone for now, you can always cut it lower). Get another root and graft if you really want a central leader tree.
I think you would enjoy some fruits in the upcoming years more than framework rework.

[Richard]

I’m in 10b and in agreement with Ukie. I often train my apples that way. Look at those 4 nice scaffolds you have. The fifth (uppermost) might be lost to the wound. I wouldn’t try to train any of those scaffolds vertical.

[BlueBerry]

Ukie and Dennis D both offer you options. There are others. But theirs are good ones.

But, I think I’d try to cut that dead stub as close as possible though not cutting into the ‘collar’ around the uppermost limb if it can be done strategically. Then coating the exposed dead in a sealer or white waterbased paint.

Overall, it’s a pretty good job somebody has done removing a dead or damaged leader.
Sometimes doing noting is a good option. It looks like I see possible fruit buds. Besides,
a tree on your rootstock isn’t likely to live as much as 15-30 years anyhow. If the tree is fragile, an espalier could be done, or severe thinning so branches don’t break under a big crop of fruit.

[poncirusguy]

seal up the crack and leave it alone. You could graft a vertical scion near the cut to start a new center leader.

[BlueBerry]

True, and make it a second variety so cross pollination not needed, even.
There are options for sure.

[zendog]

It can be pretty hard to get a stub to heal on a larger tree. I think the idea of grafting a new top may be the best long-term answer if you want to go to a central leader, or even just trying to get a good recovery to what will otherwise always be a stub cut on top.

Below is an Asian pear I just reworked this past spring by cutting it off at about 3 feet above the ground. If you bark graft in multiple scions, about one for every inch to inch and a quarter of circumference, you will get a continuous callous developing around the top which will eventually seal. You can remove the “extras” after the first or second year and just have a single one continue as your new leader. The second photo showing the top of the grafted area is the result of one season’s growth and you can still see the small tops of the scions.

You can easily take scions from your existing tree, store them in the fridge in a zip lock and just regraft them to a fresh cut at the top this spring when the tree starts pushing new growth. I would probably cut just below the 4th branch, leaving 3 lower branches for now while the new grafts grow. I’m not sure that is always necessary, but you can see I left a few nurse branches on mine, although maybe they don’t qualify as nurse branches since I grafted those over as well. In your case you could ultimately decide to put other varieties on one or more of the lower branches later on after the new top has grown out or keep it all as Spartan.

To show the possible healing over time, here is a twin trunk apricot that I top worked in 2020 at about a foot up. It is pretty tough to make out the even were the graft was.

And to see how that healing started, here is the tree back in spring 2021, a year after I had done the grafting. In that case I didn’t have continuous healing all the way around, but close enough to give near perfect results just a few years later. Keep in mind an in ground apricot is going to be more vigorous than your container grown apple, so yours might take longer to get a more complete recovery.

Apricot grafts - 1 year update

Grafting may seem a little scary if you haven’t done it, but bark grafting a good-sized tree is about the easiest of grafts and there are many YouTube videos and helpful folks here to guide you if you decide to give it a try.

[NuttingBumpus]

Years ago someone gave me a seedling apple (likely a Jonathan x G. Delicious) which had a tuft of branching starting at five feet up. Bizarre. I asked an orchardist how to tackle it and he suggested, if I had the stomach for it, to cut it at about 40 inches tall. I did. 14 adventitious (back-up minor) buds opened and it had that many branches the following winter. I selected one, bent it upward and I had a central leader.

This tree has a lowest branch that looks as if it might be flexible. Try bending it vertically, tying it to the trunk. Cut the other branches away. Depending on how it plays, you can trim other growth all season or whack it just above the new leader, as DennisD says, at an angle. In that case you might need to tie a narrow piece of wood to the trunk and branch to reinforce its vertical growth the first season. A little curve in your trunk at this stage is a small price to pay for the benefit I believe you can enjoy.

[fruitbat]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. You gave me lots of great options and ways of thinking about this little tree!

Here’s what I’ve done for now:

I picked the top right-hand branch because I knew I’ll need to lop off the top left to get rid of that ragged scar, so my thinking was if it snapped the right-hand branch, I’d just remove both top branches and go for a central cleft graft.

But I’m pleased to say that I got that right-hand branch into about 55°, so not perfect, but we’re not going for perfect I’ve had really good success using no / minimal pruning plus shaping / training on my potted trees, but with how brittle these branches felt, I didn’t think I’d get far without them snapping. Pleased to say I was wrong, and in the spring I’ll probably affix that new leader to a stronger support, and remove the left-side branch and damaged cut area - unless you think it would be sensible to at least partly cut it off and seal it now when dormant?

At the same time, I took off a badly positioned side branch off that left-side branch (that I’ll be removing anyway) so I’ll have a backup if anything snaps, to play with side grafting, or pop on new rootstock to start a new Spartan once my rootstock comes in.

[disc4tw]

I think that if you wanted a central leader, grafting to top work could be an option. if it was me, I’d probably espalier or keep it about how it is and trim the tip down to the branch collar and see what happens. I think whichever route you take you’ll have fruit soon.

[hobilus]

M26 trains nicely as an open center, and less well as a central leader IME. Its vigor even in ground is low enough that it tends to revert to something of a vase shape regardless of what you do.
There are plenty of workable approaches and fortunately the stakes are quite low. That said, I agree with those suggesting it has a good basic form already. Id top the tree again carefully by first pruning the bulk of the top limb and then carefully cut at a slight slope with a SHARP japanese tooth pruning saw about 1/8” above the collar of the 2nd scaffold from the top. If need be, do a little bit of light paring with a sharp pruning knife to shape it for healing easily and shedding water.
Id keep either all 5 scaffolds or perhaps just the 3 upper ones depending. If it were an in ground tree, Id go with the 3 as they give you a good foundation for structure above and vigor will fill that canopy out in no time. As a container tree you may be better with the 5 assuming you may not have a lot of additional scaffold growth. My advice would be to take the most direct route to getting a desirable form (skip the central leader) and focus youre efforts on training and pruning for good spur formation

[NuttingBumpus]

Fruitbat: move to the head of the class. That is brilliant.

Hobilus: how curious to find your experience with M26 seemed to favor open center. I had two apples on EMLA26, Bardsey & Liberty. Bardsey grew fine as a central leader for the nine years I had it. The tree was bomb-proof; the fruit irresistible to codling moths. Liberty grew the same (it now dwells at the home of a friend). Perhaps you had cultivars that prefer to spread coincidentally on M26?

[NuttingBumpus]

Or Hobilus: with my tiny sample, perhaps the reverse is true. Maybe what I had (all 2 of 'em) are determined to grow central leaders, despite the stocks influence.