My backyard Florida "orchard", apple, pear and citrus

General Fruit Growing
#21

The crotch angles are still way too narrow; they will split down the tree badly when the branches have any fruit on them.

This winter do a slanting “Dutch cut” to force a branch to sprout at a wider crotch angle under the stub you cut off. Use a toothpick the spread the branch angle of the new sprout, then keep it trained horizontally. Cut the leader back to 5’ tall and as soon as the tree starts to push growth in the spring, take a hacksaw blade and make a notch right above all the latent buds on the trunk to force some of them to form branches.

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#22

This is a notch forcing a bud to sprout.

#23

This is how it looks in practice in Uganda.

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#24

Very informative, thanks for making this so easy to understand. What about the structure of the wood in the tree makes the narrow crotch so much more susceptible to splitting? I have seen it mentioned repeatedly on this forum. I have to admit that most of the branches I have pulled down horizontally still have somewhat narrow crotches at the tree.

#25

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Its the way the grain flows though the branch. You can see in this illustration the high angle branch has bark inclusion and the grain is very susceptible to splitting, while the low-angle branch has the grain flowing into it and can take a lot of weight.

#26

that picture really helps explain things. is there a way I can open up the existing crotch angle by further bending the existing branches, or do I just need to do the slanting Dutch cut and start from scratch?

When you say leader, you mean the tallest branch, right?

#27

Thanks for taking time to answer and the great illustration. It looks like to me that almost any branch that pops out would need to be propped down to avoid this. As I learn more about this , it is more like apple tree sculpting and less like pruning.

#28

@applenut does this grain thing apply only to apples or other fruit trees?

#29

Dan; it applies to all trees. Wider crotch angles are stronger as the grain flows into the branch.

#30

Fantastic. A very good friend of mine had rhododendron farms in Rhodesia and Kenya.

#31

Ok, I get it now…sometimes between your picture applenut and the one below it’s making more sense…

So the branches I currently have tied down need to be cut at the angle in the picture below to encourage the new growth. Then that growth needs to be pushed down to force it to grow horizontally.

on top of that, the notch cuts above the latent buds will push new growth as well and that should be done in the spring…

So, Dutch cut winter, notch cuts spring…stay tuned.

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