I have a topping question. For your information, I do ALL of my trees, regardless of species to an open center design.
I purchased some trees from Cummins this year & I see their topping procedure is a bit different than a lot of other nurseries or internet videos.
Do any of you folks top your trees in this fashion, & how has it worked for you? The part I was hesitant on was cutting backs all of the branches to 3/4" nubs…
If you’re not familiar, here is a description & the page:
Topping Your Trees
So your trees are planted. What’s next? Topping your trees.
This can be a painful process, but please do it! Although we sometimes have to prune the trees to fit into the shipping boxes, the pruning that we do at shipping time is usually not enough. Be brave! Cut the tops as we suggest below, and you and your trees will be much happier. Topping promotes strong, healthy growth and gives you a well-shaped tree.
If you don’t top the trees, the chances of it surviving are decreased.
To top your trees, trim the central leader back to 38" from the graft union and all side branches back to 3/4" nubs. This will give your trees their greatest chance of survival and vibrant growth. If the tree is shorter than 38" from the graft union, there is no need to top it.
I really like this video from Cornell. The part about heading a tree starts at 11:15. He’s talking about a tall spindle system so he’s saying don’t do it, but if you’re growing a free standing tree that you want to keep small it would probably get the result you want.
And as for branch nubs, you could tie those branches down instead.
You may find the delays open center Described here to be interesting.
I can see pruning the limbs, but stubbing them seems a bit strange. Pruning will result in stiffer limbs, with potentially added vigour, but the stub seems to just make them have vigour?
Topping could give you a head start on structure if you have selected scaffolds already, but the pruning will generally make the tree push for a new leader in the top part of the tree, with less vigour towards the bottom.
Then again, I am not an arborist and I am sure cummins has their reasons. Maybe it is to idiot proof the tree growing though.
Dr Robison’s video is for commercial growers using the tall spindle method for very close planting of trees. There’s some good information in it for all growers who want trees closely spaced. Since I’m running out of space I’m considering the technique.
Also like his video on pruning for tall spindle trees.
Agreed. I think it has a lot of potential for home orchardist too. Seems like a good way to try a lot of different varieties in a small space. I’m trying it out with about 25 trees. Planted them last year. Didn’t get them to the top wire the first year but the trees look good otherwise.
While I was planting the last of my trees yesterday from Cummins, I took a good, hard look at the roots on the trees they ship & it finally dawned on me why they want you to top it & cut all the branches off. (essentially creating a whip out of a feathered tree).
The roots are cut back so severely that they are worried the trees won’t live if you don’t balance the trunk to the limbs.
There are literally nothing but short , thick root stumps on these things. If one wanted to, you could literally dig a hole 10" wide and about 8" deep & what little of the roots is left, would fit in it comfortably…
You’d be shocked how quickly the feeder roots come back, if the tree is adequately hydrated before planting and watered after planting. Also, a fully dormant bare-root tree will not put out any more top growth than its roots can support. Top growth is encouraged by hormones coming from the root tips and discouraged by hormones coming from the shoots. Roots are likewise encouraged/discouraged by the inverse set of hormones. Any time the hormones get out of balance, the part that is less inhibited grows more until the hormones are in balance.
I’ve had trees that come as you describe, that I did not do any top pruning, and they put on lots of healthy growth the first season. I seldom see the “sleep, creep, leap” pattern on bare-root trees and shrubs, with the possible exception of persimmons. At worst, I get “creep, leap.”
The ACTUAL reason they ask you to do that is that it’s the easiest way to explain how to train a fruit tree to the masses. Not necessarily the best and certainly not the only way to train a tree, but it’s easy to understand. Also, the “feathers” on a young whip are often too thick in proportion to the trunk. See @alan 's “Pruning by Numbers” post for more on that.
If there are feathers that looks healthy, at the right spot, and good branch angle keep those feathers, head them as needed if necessary to strengthen the wood. If there are feathers that don’t look good, but them back to one to two buds or an inch or two. These days I wish nurseries send out trees without chopping off all the feathers mainly for plums, I rather have those old wood and work with them to get them fruit quick than wait two plus years with newly grown branches.
