I’m a first time apple grower and just planted two bare root trees that I purchased this weekend. One is a single variety (sundowner; picture attached), while the other is a multi-variety grafted tree (Fuji, Dorsett Golden, Anna, Beverly Hills). The single variety is taller with an intact central leader/trunk. The trunk of the multi-variety has been pruned right above the highest of the grafted branches (no more central leader). I have a few questions:
For the single variety, would it be ill-advised to prune the trunk to create more of an open center tree? I’ve put a red line in the picture to show a potential pruning location. I’m hesitant to do this since it would remove so much wood; however, there also seems to be an oddly large gap between branches in the middle section of the trunk.
The Anna branch on the multi-variety tree is already starting to put out leaves/flowers. Can/should I prune/tip this branch, or is it too late now?
In general, how much (if any) would you recommend to prune from the tip of each branch that I keep on the tree? As you can see in the picture, some look quite long and I assume could benefit from being tipped, but I don’t really know.
Whether you go with a central leader or open center is an up to you thing. It looked like, but I couldn’t tell for sure, that the area of blind wood in the middle there has at least a couple intact buds. You can notch above them to encourage branching there.
What rootstock is the pictured one on? Semi-dwarf or full size? And how tall do you intend to let the tree get?
A whorl of the best four or five lower branches, another whorl up at the present top of the tree now, and some misc smaller stuff at the to be grown yet actual top would be a pretty nice central leader tree.
I can’t tell the branch angles from the picture, but if you’re going to top the tree at the red line it looks like there’s four or five that are growing well and not directly over each other to use as scaffolds.
You’ve got the start of a very well laid out tree with beautiful branch angles, and it does look like it could go either way -open center (vase) or modified central leader. I agree with both of the posters above. Prune the tips of the tree back by about a third, including the Anna, no more at present. Don’t worry about the gap -as @evilpaul says, it may very well fill in, and besides, a little space between whorls is a good thing as it allows air and light in to the bottom whorl.
It would be useful to know the rootstock.
I would probably choose the central leader myself, but open centers have their advantages too and it’s up to you.
Thanks for your very helpful response! The tree is on M111 rootstock. Ideally, I don’t want the tree to get much taller than 10 feet, although I don’t know how realistic that is with this rootstock.
Thanks, Mark! As noted in my response to evilpaul, it’s on M111 rootstock. I think I’m leaning toward central leader at this point so may just select my branches and prune them back by about a third, as recommended.
If you keep it pruned you can keep it that height. I have most of my trees on M111 and they can get taller, mine have-unfortunately. So I will get mine more under control this spring/summer. Some have stayed close to that height, I do like the M111 rootstock that suits my soil better than some of the others I have tried.
I try to keep my MM111 to no more than 12 feet. My best success with keeping the height under control without constant pruning has come with gravitating to a modified central leader.
Steven Edholm (Skillcult) had some nice instructional videos on the same.
Read what I wrote about pruning in guides. Pruning back branches by one-third was the traditional approach but I believe that the less pruning done the more quickly the tree will get good size and come into bearing. Only prune broken or touching branches and any branches more than a third or a half of the diameter of the trunk at the point of attachments to it. More vigorous and later fruiting varieties should be held to the 1/3rd ratio.
People tend to over prune their saplings and are removing a lot of stored energy when they do so.
As far as the cutting back one third of last year’s growth, I believe that is useful for varieties reluctant to produce secondary branches but it requires subsequent summer pruning to re-establish a dominant leader for that scaffold. I don’t believe it is at all helpful the first year of establishment.
My orchard management business takes way too much time for me to be making videos. I’m pruning fruit trees every working hour for 6-7 months a year and have been for several decades. But I can’t prune when it’s dark so I’m writing about it now.
