I hadn’t actually done any pruning yet. Down the hill is southwest, so the little lateral is facing more west. Yes, I see I could have moved the post a few inches further south and tied it to the other side of the post. My main goal was to straighten the trunk. I might end up pruning this branch off because it’s so low.
I know I probably wait too long to start training trees and I have ended up with a few v-shaped apples in the flat orchard and a lot of young ones on the hill with too much growth clustered at the top and very few laterals, due to the difference in sun patterns.
It’s a matter of priorities… I planted 120 trees while still working and taking care of two older people. I don’t know that it was the best decision and anyone who looks around can find things I could have done better, or at least on time. I can introduce you to worse trained trees than this!
I’m impressed you managed to get 120 trees planted and even put in a few stakes with all that going on!
Also, it’s on bud9 right? So it will probably have to be staked long term?
And lots of people don’t worry about training things on dwarfing rootstock until they’re taller. I do think people cut off any branch that is more than 1/3 the trunk size or is below 18” or 2’ in the early times though.
@MikeC@benthegirl
Thanks! Yes, this one’s bud9. I moved it (and more than a dozen others) up the hill 3 years ago, because they were suffering on the flat orchard. Maybe bud9 has too many surface roots for that particular environment. This is a sad looking little tree, but it did put on about 8” of growth this year! Of the trees I moved, I think 6 still don’t have apples. Several finally look good, though, and are 6-10 feet tall. I need to get serious about training and pruning next year.