My experience with notching pears and apples

[ribs1]

Hello,
This last 2 years I have decided to notch my 2 year old apple trees following Stephen Edholm’s recommendations. So far it’s working out but I thought I would show one of my main findings.

1. This works really well with apples. You can notch the buds before they leaf out or wait until you have some growth. No problem.
2. With pears, if you notch the buds the resulting shoot will grow straight up with a very poor angle requiring support with a clothes pin to bring the angle down.
   My solution for pears is to wait until a shoot is a few inches long and then notch it. When this is done the angle is already set.

[tbg9b]

Notching worked well for me this year on all my fruit trees when done early in the year. For stubborn spots that I really wanted a branch I applied BAP+Lanolin to the bud. I wouldn’t say it worked in a high percentage of the cases, but it did help sometimes when notching alone didn’t produce results.

[sockworth]

@tbg9b

BAP

Could you explain what this is?

[alan]

I don’t know who Stephen Edolm’s is, but the subject of notching on this forum started right around its beginning- I learned about it from an article in the NAFEX publication Pomona way back in the early '90’s written by the world famous commercial fruit growing consultant Bas van dan Ende and the technique was already well established then- probably for centuries.

Here’s an article about it that shows something about how long the technique has been practiced and also information about timing/

article-p678.pdf

I like for credit to go where it’s due.

Here is something from this forum on the subject in 2019, and it was not at all the first time the subject came up. It’s very thorough though.

Other tree training techniques: spreading, bending, notching, girdling, etc

There’s a lot of emphasis placed on making major pruning cuts when the trees are dormant and then very little said about summer pruning, limb bending, notching, etc. It’s hard to find consistent information on some of these techniques so I wanted to put them all down here and maybe get a discussion going on peoples experience with them. I will update this post periodically as I experiment with some of these techniques and observe their results. Summer pruning Used to control the size of a tree…

[ribs1]

Stephen Edholm who is a member here is credited to bringing this technique to youtube. He credits the history of the technique. I did not suggest that Stephen came up with the technique only that he recommends it on his youtube channel. His youtube handle, growing fruit name and website is skillcult.

[tbg9b]

@sockworth

Could you explain what this is?

Training branch up trunk to become a scaffold branch

6-Benzylaminopurine, benzyl adenine or BAP might be another option to get a node to sprout a new branch where you want. Mix 2% BAP with Lanolin and spread a little on a node.

[alan]

skilcut I have frequently heard mentioned here. If I had the patience required for videos I’d check it out, I gather his videos are useful.

[mroot]

Alan-

I think his videos are worth watching. I believe you would find his videos on training young trees to be interesting. He talks about a study done by the University of Illinois in early 1900s (I think 1920s) at the experimental station located there. It deals with make a heading cut to induce branching vs notching to induce branching and the long term effects on the health of the tree.

Myself I like his series of videos on interstem trees which he also did writeups on. He also has some interesting breeding projects going on.