What technique do you use for setting scaffold angles on apple trees? I’m starting to get trees at my target height and will want to start shaping them.
Also once the leader has passed my target height and I want to encourage scaffolds to form should I top the leader? For instance I want scaffolds to start at 5’ (the height of my tree tubes). If the leader is taller than 7 feet can I cut it back to 6 feet and hopefully get 3 desirable scaffolds in between?
it may be obvious, and I dont mean to insult you if so, but your question suggested to me that you or someone reading your question would benefit by this advise:
Look at bud placement as it will tell you where scaffolds will occur. The size and orientation of the bud tells you something about how it is apt to grow. If you want 3 scaffolds and a central leader, look for 3 buds well spaced radially and a fourth strong bud to grow as a leader.
If you have side branching already, pruning them back to a downward facing bud is a good way to initiate a wide scaffold. An upward facing bud will tend to grow (of all things) upward
Thanks hobilus! Absolutely no insult taken. Before last spring I had never grafted and now have 100 apples. So I would be okay to cut the attached at 6 feet?
If I understand your question, you’re asking about spreading branches, not about selecting a leader or encouraging lateral growth.
Some folks use spreaders. I, myself, have used bits and pieces of lath cut to ad hoc lengths. I notch the ends and insert them between the branch and the leader and expect them to stay there. They don’t. I have to pick them up and reinstall them every couple of days.
Nowadays, I use jute twine and tent pegs. I attribute this to experience. I would use paper twine if I could get it at Tractor Supply. I use the big, plastic, yellow tent pegs because they don’t get lost for more than a season or two. I put the peg in the ground at an outward angle some distance from the trunk and tie the branch down to it. If the branch is heavy, I am careful not to bend it to the breaking point, and I may cushion the top of the branch with a bit of split garden hose. The downside of staking branches is that I trip over the twine and potentially break the branches anyway. Tying flagging tape to the twine at various levels looks hideous but helps.
if you want to grow a central leader, itd be best IMO to keep your apical bud rather than snip it at 6 ft. If you want an open center or similar, then yes, do snip.
My suggestion for training to a central leader would be to let the whip make side branches when its good and ready and select amongst them, ideally as they are pushing rather than after theyve grown a bunch. When the growth is still very tender, you can just pinch it of rub it off. If you wind up with assymetry- like 2 scaffolds instead of 3 or 4- cut those 2 back to a single bud so that growth is balanced around the whole tier of scaffolds. Dont let some get way ahead, or the others will never catch up (or not without time and effort). You can correct whatever mistakes youve made during the dormant season, but the quickest way to a good structure is to train during active growth. That way, no growth is wasted, all growth is channeled into your preferred form.
Have you ever tried cutting lengths of green wood and snipping the ends so that they make a long sharp point? The wind can still rattle them loose, but the point bites into the bark a bit l, helping them stay in place. I like to keep them as near the crotch as possible. So for a steep (weak) crotch for example, a 3-4” piece may suffice if placed within the first few inches of the branch’s length. That helps to minimize movement and keep things in place.
I generally use another species of wood, if handy, just to avoid needless pathogen risk. Amelanchier is usually really good since its very stiff and straight growing. Dogwood or Viburnum would be good too.
I’ve hung water bottles from branches before. You can add/remove water until you have the proper weight for the desired pull.
I prefer to catch future scaffold branches when they’re very young/small and train 'em with a clothes pin though. Must quicker results, after a couple of weeks the angle is pretty much set.
New, young branches with toothpicks - the angle is set in a few weeks and stays forever.
Also with strings and forked branches cut from random trees/bushes, for older growth.
I’ve used water bottles and other methods. These things are available on Ebay or Amazon and are quick and easy to use.
I’ve used the plastic spreaders like shown though the branch past the device is not stopped from curving skyward.
I’m using some tent stakes and string as well. My concern with not having a ‘free floating’ branch is it looses it’s mobility in the wind by attaching it to the ground. Two things I’m concerned about with this is relative motion between the tied portion and the rest of the tree might split the branch. The second is perhaps the branch doesn’t thicken as much with less motion from the wind since it’s tied. A tree responds to wind by enlarging the branches to resist it.
Some trees (Fireside/Connell Red, Maiden Blush) will present way too many branches that you must consider which to cut away & which to select as scaffolds. Others, very few & pretty much eliminate the need to select scaffolds (Rosemary Russet, Gold Rush).
If it is a spreading tree (Shackleford, many if not most red-fleshed) you have to encourage it to grow upward just to get enough height between scaffolds.
The good thing is they are adaptable and you can correct mistakes once you realize them (witness my Claygate).
I might add that an upright growing cv. such as Maiden Blush will open branch structure by the weight of fruit over time. I’ve also weighed 'em down with beer bottles filled with water & tied where it seems best to get results. It was surprising how long the water lasted in the bottles in this dry environment.
That is true. A piece of bamboo or stiff rod of some sort would have to be used to keep the branch straight. That’s a reminder I need to do that on a few small trees I’m shaping.
I’ve thought of using wire kind of like is used in bonsai… Don’t know if it would cause problems from perhaps heating up too much from the sun though
Branch spreading is a constant activity in my nursery and orchards and I use several methods. This is the best branch spreader have found https://peachridge.com/shop/Metal-Spreaders-12-p558950270 and comes in several sizes. Sometimes I tape a length of straight wood made from a thick annual shoot if I’m bending a particularly thick branch so I don’t need to stack two of them together for the needed strength.
You can also use double pointed nails and and thin pieces of wood if you have the time but I don’t find the little plastic spreaders very useful. Once in a while I need to spread a branch over 2" in diameter and for this I usually find a sapling with a co-dominant leader to make up to an 8’ long spreader. I will usually use electric tape to hold it in place.
That said, my usual method is just taping permanent branches to temporary ones below with electric tape or sometimes string if I can’t tape them together. I cut away the parts of the temp branch that aren’t needed and crowd my permanent branch.
When a branch is really important and hard to spread I also use rebar rods pressed firmly into the ground. to tape permanent scaffolds to- but that is usually only needed for peaches and nects.
For branches too thick to spread without breaking (like those ones I use 8’ spreaders for) I make a hinge, which involves making as many cuts as you need on the underside of the limb starting next to the trunk not more than half way through the branch and about an inch apart. It is an acquired skill.
Good stuff. I hadn’t thought of using a kerf cut to bend a larger branch as I’m usually thinking of altering the angle of first year growth.
I’d imagined a kerf cut should be done best right before bud break to speed healing? Or is the 1/2 of the branch that is intact enough to feed the branch downstream from the cuts until they heal?.
Oh I meant to add…using kerf cuts is great because the cambium layer should match up well once it is bent to fill the space of the cut and the pressure from holding the limb down would ensure good contact for healing.
Do you put grafting tape over a kerf? Or can it sit open and callus up?
Hopefully the hinge is done in a way that the cuts are closed when the branch spreads, but even if some are open I let the tree deal with the wounds as they always seem to be up to the task.
One reason I use the method so much is that I do a lot of grafting on the most vigorous shoots in a tree- that is water sprouts. The longer I let them grow vertically the faster they grow . They are usually near the trunk on a scaffold branch I intend to replace with the graft.
Smart. Assuming you can still alter the angle after the first years growth as mentioned, it’s a smart way to get fast scaffolding growth.
I guess once the branch is lowered the tree will do its hormone thing and start setting flower buds for the next year.
Thought of another reason doing the undercut is good. It transitions the stresses from pulling a formed limb down away from the trunk joint where the branch emerges and spreads it out over the limb better. Normally I’d be concerned about the branch splitting at the trunk if I pulled too hard.
My engineering brain is on overdrive with this idea…
Thanks @alan
