If a tree grows top up, as in branches never get higher, why would I ever keep a lower branch? Particularly , I mean when it is small. Is that just so the plant can have leaves and produce food? Later I hope higher up branches come out where I want and top the tree?
I’ve seen lots of trees people just planted, but those branches are knee height and will never get higher.
This is a question I should have asked myself when I first started planting. If the branches are too low it’s hard to weed or mow around and under them, and they are closer to being splashed by fungal and bacterial diseases waiting on the ground for rain. They’re closer to hungry animals and crawling insects, too.
I have just started pruning some of these knee high branches out, and I hate to do it because they’re 2” or more thick.
A tree grows everywhere, not just the top. It grows radially in girth and axially in length at all of the growing tips.
The top of a 1" limb at knee height will be about 6" higher when its diameter is 13". The bottom of that limb will be 6" lower as well.
Why keep a lower limb? If you want volume down low. Branches can turn upward or have upward growing growth originating at them.
I would not keep a lower branch on something like an apple for more than one season… unless the tree was just a super slow grower.
Anything below 4.5 ft here normally gets browsed by deer.
I grafted a couple apple trees a few years back… the end of that first year they were both 4 ft tall whips (no branching).
I planted them out in my orchard and the next season several small branches developed in that initial 4 ft whip area… but the central leader (top) also grew on up to 7 ft. Those small branches were inside my tree cage and the deer did not bother them.
The next spring i removed all limbs from that bottom 4 ft area… and on the central leader between 4.5 ft and 5.5 ft i notched buds selecting buds to become scaffold branches… 4 of those… north south east west.
The central leader continues on up now and I will be selecting buds to notch for my second tier of scaffold branches soon.
Basically I only keep low branches until my tree reaches the desired height for scaffold branch development (4.5 to 5.5 ft).
TNHunter
