Yes my tall spindle set up is 4 feet spacing and tieing
the branches below 90. Cutting the leader at about 10 feet to a side branch.
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Sorry, I was writing only about freestanding rootstocks. If you are talking about dwarfs it is also important to consider the growth habit of the cultivar, but the art of pruning dwarfs is much less complicated. I gather the main issue is to avoid runting them out by letting them fruit too early.
As far as cycling in and out of scaffolds, that is also done with free standers with the upper scaffolds in central leader trees. That’s one thing that makes open center easier to manage for back-yarders.
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A good Ashmead’s Kernel approaches Goldrush in crunchy in-your-face flavor, but is more erratic.
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Here’s my 4th leaf GR on B118 roots, probably around 12’.
Fruit have just started to ripen, the backsides are no longer greengreen, changing to yellowgreen. Maybe another week? Warm fall here in Maine after a couple cold spells of 20F.
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I have picked a bunch of mine and they are good, but not as acid as in the past years.
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As far as growth habits are concerned, GR seems vigorous in its early years, but I expect that to mellow once it comes into bearing, and as a spur bearing type maintaining some vegatative vigor is a good idea in my case. I’m happy to let it shoot up as long as I’m developing scaffolds, no need for any heading cuts, just a bit of thinning.
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JMO but I’d do heading cuts on the tree above with a few apples. Those long flimsy shoots can’t support more than an apple or two. If mine I’d head those long shoots back next spring. Others might have a different take.
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Jesse, I’m surprised you have a long enough season for GR in Z5, however your apples seem to be as far along as mine and maybe even further. I’m Z6, but up in the mountains.
Here’s my Goldrush, I took these photos just a few minutes ago. I thinned a gazillion apples off this tree in the spring, actually I think it was more like a hundred or so…lol. Anyway, it’s always been a prolific apple producer. Produced the first year after planting (yes, I allowed it). I don’t bother with this tree because so far, I don’t care much for the apples. I sure do appreciate all it’s good growing qualities though.
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Here is a photo of a problem I’m pretty sure began as a result of repeated below freezing temps, and more than likely (I think) heavy frosts. There are a few like this and one that is checked worse, but it was too high to photograph.
BTW…look closely and you can see traces of Captan. This tree has not been sprayed since I think the week of July 4th. The addition of a integrated sticker in this new Captan is awesome.
Appleseed,
Nice tree and beautiful apples. Mine is not as precocious. I don’t think I see any fruit bud setting.
Glad to see people share input/comments/advice. I think Hambone is correct with his guess that GR’s parents were telephone poles 
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Well I have no such soft spots on apples in the tree that saw 20 degrees. None of my apple varieties suffered visibly, even ones that tend to soften much sooner than GR on the tree and not as firm to begin with.
But my trees are on much more vigorous rootstock and there is a much higher leaf to fruit ratio (that might affect the flavor also, don’t you think?)
Zones do not take into account day length. More northern latitudes get more hours of sun during the ripening season of many varieties of fruit. This seems to be more important than sun intensity or heat for some cultivars and/or species given that Olpea’s late peach varieties ripen almost 2 weeks later than mine or Scot’s same variety lates while his earliest varieties ripen considerably sooner. That may be one of the more interesting empirical revelations provided for me by this forum this year.
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My thought as well. I’d count the fruit on there now and leave half that many next yr. See what that does to eating quality.
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Most of what I’ve read says to avoid major pruning until the tree starts bearing in earnest, with standard or semi standard sized trees, at least. I am satisfied with the framework of this tree so far, with two sets of scaffold branches started. I can always control height later on with a heading cut on the central leader to a weaker shoot, so I don’t mind it reaching for the sky in the meantime. Getting some growth above the deer browse line is a must for me!
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The fruit jumps out at you. Great looking tree.
Some of my newer apple tree plantings are 5’ apart on M111/bud 9 interstems. Bending below 90 degrees might be my best option for these trees. Thanks, Bill
These aren’t “soft spots” Alan, although the photograph does a horrible job of showing it, they are what I’m calling “checks”. I wish I could have found one that the sun didn’t obscure, I was in a hurry. It is circumferential rings of very tiny splits, only on the closest portion toward the calyx. It’s not too bad, and only on several of them. There are no “soft spots” like from freezing or whatnot.
Absolutely! It’s just another reason I’m not so fond of weaker dwarfing stocks. Yes, I’ve considered it, and not just on this tree either, though I have only one other dwarf stock. I don’t know if you noticed, but this tree is also braced using the professor Kent technique. I don’t know if it would have fell over, but it sure looked like it might. M106 and up doesn’t seem to have this problem, at all, ever, for me, even while carrying much, much heavier loads. I hate the idea of artificial bracing just to hold such a tree upright. To your point though, yes, I think the leaf ratio is too slim on this stock. Good point.
If I were to attempt to thin this tree to a degree acceptable from the perspective of leaf ratio, then the tree wouldn’t be (to borrow Lucky’s verbage) “worth the space it occupies”. I’d be harvesting 12 apples. I’d suggest anyone considering smaller stocks to take this into consideration. M106 probably requires less than 10% more area…and it’s worth every penny of it imo.
BTW Alan, I have Goldrush grafted to seedling stock (crude, seed grown), and not only are there more leaves, they are also significantly larger. Maybe I’ll get a pic of that if anyone is interested. It also holds the leaves longer too, and although the dwarves look pretty good, the seedling stock looks vastly better.
I didn’t know this at all, but I will study up on it this winter…thank you.
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I agree with the others Jesse, I too would knock it down a bit. I have read sources saying exactly as you mention, but I’ve also read more which suggest earlier training is the way to go. I’m more like you though, I also tend to let them get a bit out of hand before I do anything. That way assures a better, more noticeable outcome as a result of my intervention…lol!
Makes me at least feel as though I know what I’m doing.
I also get your point about the deer, that looks like spooky bad deer territory
PS…your plum trees I just looked at are crazy awesome!
Let me know if you find anything. The unfounded certainty of my first sentence on the issue may have misled you. I do not know if this is a scientifically established fact as the following sentences were meant to express.
To my mind, it is the only logical explanation of the diverging ripening patterns between Olpea’s more southern and our more northern locations. Earlier peach varieties ripen substantially earlier in KS than in NY while later varieties ripen substantially earlier in NY.
If we all put our observations together on this forum to this issue we should have enough empirical evidence to pretty much establish my theory as fact.
There are other issues that need to be taken into account, perhaps the most important being light exposure at any given site, but also close proximity to the ocean seems to have the affect in delaying harvest date as well but delays both early and late varieties. Encore ripens at least a week later when grown bordering the beach about 30 miles due east of me. All of Mrs. G’s varieties ripen much later than mine. In the case of the Encore, it flowers a few days earlier on the beach site than at mine.
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Delicious, 20F didn’t faze it! Also, what looks “spindly” in a photo can be quite different in person, but I guess time will tell. The fun thing is is that everyone has their own perspective, it’s is great to compare, and hear from you all . In general, I work with a looser hand than many on this forum, focusing on growing the healthiest fruit I can with organics, species diversity, minimal sprays and I guess, tall trees😉.
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