4/13/09 PRUNING THE OLD APPLE TREE

Monday, 8:00 AM. 38 degrees, wind WNW, calm. The sky is overcast and the barometer predicts precipitation. It’s off to Duluth for Joan’s eye checkup.
The old apple tree in the back yard gets an annual pruning to keep it in scale and to make it esthetically pleasing. It produces nothing but small scabby fruit only good for deer bait, it is some kind of Delicious apple but is probably a seedling. I used to spray it but it is not worth the effort. But it is pretty in bloom and I like its shape.,
I won’t give a treatise on apple tree pruning because there are so many varieties and root stocks (dwarf, semi-dwarf, standard, etc.) that it is a large subject. Suffice it to say that as in all tree pruning one first eliminates crossing branches, dead wood and water sprouts (suckers) and after that prune for shape. One wants the tree to be easy to pick, and for the fruit to receive sunlight to ripen. Apples need heavy pruning to produce well, and copious amounts of wood are removed every year. Late winter or early spring is the best time to prune. Make flush or nearly flush cuts to avoid “thumbs,” stubs which are unsightly and will cause lots of problems.
I am not a fan, generally speaking, of apples in the home landscape. Apples need to be sprayed constantly as they develop, and growing them organically is very difficult because they are so disease prone by nature. But an apple tree can be a very pretty thing in the landscape, and can live for hundreds of years so it is nice to have one around for those reasons alone. As for the fruit, I will go to the orchards.
The goldfinches are now in their bright mating plumage and are flitting about everywhere.