Hello! I am a first time fruit tree owner. Basically I wanted to purchase a couple of columnar apple trees for their apples but mostly to pollinate the Bramley that I preordered for next year. I purchased this one at a local garden center yesterday but I’m not sure it looks much like a columnar! Was it pruned improperly or why does it look like a regular tree? I’m still very much a newbie at this!
I am going to try to include photos of it but I’m not sure it’s going to work…any tips for posting photos from an iPhone?
Welcome to the forum, Ariel! Good job on posting the photos. That is a very pretty place you have there. I don’t know the answer to your question, but I’m sure many knowledgeable people will be posting soon!
It probably lost its growing tip and then developed multiple leaders. The bonus is now it has more wood to produce fruit. “Columnar” is the natural habit of each leader on the tree, but pruning is required if you want it to only maintain a single leader. I prefer to think of them as “candelabra” trees since that’s a more accurate description of their normal shape.
Ok, great! Thanks everyone for reassurance! Is there anything that I should remove for best performance? Should I basically treat like any other apple tree as far as pruning goes or are there special columnar pruning rules?
Before offering any advice, it would be useful to know why you want a vertical tree? Do you have or expect to have deer issues? Are these rootstocks dwarf , semi dwarf or standard?
Dennis
Kent, wa
The reason I want a vertical tree is because it’s planted along the fence line of our corn/bean field and my husband doesn’t like trees shading his corn and beans! Plus, since I will need three apple trees with the Bramley I want something that isn’t going to produce a million apples.
I don’t know if it’s on dwarf or semi dwarf rootstock but it said it would get to about 10’ so assume maybe more like dwarf?
I don’t know if I will have deer issues. I know I have seen deer further back in the field close to some woods but I don’t see them close to where the apple tree is.
Given that information, I suggest you begin to spread those top scaffolds to a more horizontal direction in some manner. It’s much easier to bend them to the horizontal now that when they grow more. A horizontal scaffold is more likely to produce fruit than those allowed to go vertical.
Dennis
Kent, wa
If this is a columnar apple tree (Scarlet Sentinel, Blushing Delight, for instance) & that is what you seek, cut all the other branches next spring & leave the central stem. Looks like the most central bit also has a fork. Decide which one is most central & cut the other next spring, as well. Watch it grow straight up.
Thank you! I need to learn a lot more about pruning than what I currently do. I had thought that I wasn’t going to get any apple trees until next spring and so hopefully I had all winter and early spring to casually educate myself but then I found this one for 50% off and how could I say no to that??
And yes, it’s a Scarlet Sentinel!
Also, should I be doing any pruning right now or wait until late winter/early spring?
If anyone has any good videos or articles on pruning I would love suggestions!
I would wait until winter to prune them since you just planted it in the ground this year. Since this is a columnar apple trees, I would prune the one lower branch off. Then, 1 weakest branch on the top. I would left 3 branches on the top and see if the apple fruit is good. If you don’t like the fruit that much, then I would cut 1 more branch on top. Then you are left with 2 main branches. You can bend them together and make a heart shape tree. You can do anything you want. There is no wrong way to prune it, as long as you like the shape.
