Hi, we are new to apple trees and have a three year old tree that we recently planted. As you can see in the picture, it has a central leader and one branch. A friend recommended that we pull the central leader down to make it into a scaffold branch and said other scaffold branches would grow from the trunk. Does all of this sound like a good way to go or do you all disagree? Thanks very much!
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It looks like you have the leader pulled over to one side, and that scaffold looks kind of big to keep in my opinion. It looks like it needs to grow and form new scaffolds to me
The leader is pulled over. That’s what we were told to do. I’ll watch some of the videos. Thanks
Grain of salt time, because I am a new fruit tree grower. However, I think that your first decision is if you want an open center tree or a central leader tree. Once you make that decision it will guide your pruning decisions. Have been pruning all of my trees to an open center to keep them manageable from the ground and enjoy watching Stephen Hayes’ videos on youtube. Good luck!
I spend more time pruning apple trees than anyone I’ve heard of and have made every kind of mistake. Vids are helpful, but every variety is different. With vigorous varieties on vigorous rootstocks (M7 and up) the best thing to do, IMO, is to start by training a central leader tree- then if you want to go with an open center you have the ability to use the trunk to place branch spreaders which makes a better crotch than using string and a stake- string tends to bow a branch. Spreaders provide more control over the angle from the crotch on.
Once you’ve established your (usually 3) scaffold branches you can cut out the middle of the tree if that’s what you want. Sustaining a central leader tree makes slightly better use of light for productivity but takes more skill to maintain with most varieties. However, over time, it’s usually better to convert trees to open center, but that can be decades down the road.
You select the scaffolds preferably from equal sized branches not more than 50% of the diameter of the trunk at the point of attachment- this assures quicker fruiting and stronger unions to the trunk than larger diameter ones.
In other words, I suggest you tie the leader to a stake, remove the other branch and cut it at the height you want your first scaffold branches.
During the summer, several sprouts will occur near the point of the cut. Choose one closest to the top to continue the vertical trunk and pinch back the others during the growing season to assure the dominance of the leader. Next season you can use spreaders as needed to assure your scaffolds are at about a 70 degree upwards angle.
You don’t have to choose permanent scaffolds until tree starts bearing, unless it is a very vigorous, slow to fruit variety like Fuji, which may need branch thinning ahead of that time just to become fruitful. Other varieties can have pruning limited almost entirely to excessively thick branches until they are producing ample flowers.
A few varieties like Honeycrisp and N. Spy don’t produce much secondary branching, and need to have scaffolds pinched back in the same manner you top a tree to place scaffolds where you want them. Sometimes upright secondaries need to be taped to temporary branches to a more horizontal position. Other varieties need neither treatment and volunteer lots of branches from the trunk and from primary scaffolds.
The reason pruning videos are misleading and pruning is hard, is that, like kids, no two apple varieties behave and respond to your guidance in the same manner.
I realize that today people like videos to learn skills, and they are helpful, of course, but if you take the time to understand the concepts involved, you will be better prepared to deal with “misbehaving” trees, which are more common than the ones you will likely see in a pruning video.
I’ve written an article which is available in the guides section of this forum that contains information that may make the decision making process of pruning easier.
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I accidentally wrote Goldrush, when I meant to write Honeycrisp. Goldrush has no special problems and almost prunes itself, it was born to bear fruit.
I should have also stated that for most varieties I follow a 1/3rd diameter rule for scaffolds and not 1/2. 1/2 is fine for Goldrush and other precocious varieties, however.