When and how to prune and rejuvenate apple trees, crown formation diagram

Growing garden trees means constant care, care and a lot of attention to the seedlings. Without these components, healthy trees and high yields are impossible. Without a doubt, the apple tree is one of the most favorite fruit trees, which provides gardeners with fruits of different colors and tastes. To obtain juicy and healthy fruits, pruning of apple trees is periodically required - an important process that, if used incorrectly, can cause a lot of harm.

Why do young apple trees need to be pruned?

Carrying out such gardening work is an important part in the growth process of a fruit tree. They are carried out for many reasons that affect fruiting and the health of the shoots. Removing the central branches is necessary to form the correct crown of the apple tree. Broken, diseased and damaged branches are removed to ensure proper development of new shoots. Competitive processes that take away strength and nutrition are also necessarily removed. In this way, the apple tree prepares for the long winter period.

Apple tree pruning

Before you begin work, you need to familiarize yourself with the different ways to eliminate unnecessary branches on an apple tree. With comprehensive care, fruit plantings will delight you with rich yields every year.

Caring for this tree involves performing several activities: applying fertilizer mixtures, loosening the soil, weeding and watering, as well as the extremely important procedure of removing unnecessary branches.

Methods and extent of pruning apple trees

You can carry out a formative, sanitary, rejuvenating and regulating procedure. Formation is required to create a strong skeleton of a fruit tree, on which only strong and healthy branches will grow. Sanitation procedures clear plantings of crossing and downward growing branches. During rejuvenation, old branches are eliminated, and during regulation, the growth of the fruit tree is inhibited and shading is removed.

Also sometimes pinching is required, which can be weak, medium and strong. This action is carried out if active development of green shoots has occurred.With weak pinching, one quarter of the skeletal branches is removed, with medium pinching – one third. This only applies to mature fruit trees that have been growing for more than five years. Heavy pruning involves the complete removal of many central branches for rebirth, and also eliminates the lower branches.

Required Tools

Without the necessary set of tools and materials, it will not be possible to carry out any gardening work. The following devices will be needed:

1. Hacksaws with teeth of different sizes.
2. Hand pruners - for removing small shoots.
3. Leather gloves – for protection from mechanical damage.
4. Ladder – for tall fruit trees.
5. If necessary, an electric saw.

You also need to remember that all tools must be clean and sufficiently sharpened. It is not recommended to leave uneven cuts, as such wounds will take a long time to heal. They can also easily become infected by bacteria and harmful insects. After work, all tools and cut surfaces must be processed.

How to prune an apple tree correctly

Removal of branches is carried out according to the standard scheme. During the first visit, you need to eliminate all broken, damaged shoots and dry branches. The crown of the apple tree is also thinned out a little - the upper part of a large trunk with other shoots is cut off. The cut is carried out along the bead ring.

You should try to carry out this action so that the apple tree can heal the wound with its bark in a certain way. Otherwise, stumps may remain, which will dry out and rot over time. And fungus and harmful insects can easily settle in the voids, which contribute to the development of diseases.

And you need to remember that after all the work carried out, fresh cuts are treated using antiseptics.

Pruning by season

In addition to important knowledge and skills, you need to know the specific deadlines for which all garden work is carried out. Work begins in the spring, around April, and lasts until the buds open.

On a note! At the beginning of summer it is better to carry out sanitary removal. Autumn, when there are no leaves and fruits, is also considered a good period.

in spring

If you carry out spring work correctly, then in the new season the tree will bear good fruit. The formation of an apple tree should be carried out as follows:

• remove frozen and broken branches;
• eliminate branches that are affected by diseases;
• remove cross branches that grow inward;
• rejuvenate old trees;
• adjust the growth of the upper branches - they should be shorter than the middle and lower ones.

If last year the tree did not produce a large harvest, then it needs to be pruned quite heavily.

In summer

Summer pruning of fruit-bearing trees is not recommended, since harmful insects are extremely active during this period. Therefore, only light work is allowed at the very beginning of summer or the end of May, to eliminate competing shoots. To do this, you need to eliminate all the weak shoots that are located at the very top of the old branches. The processes that are located slightly lower should be left for the future skeleton. Extra details need to be removed.

Diseased and cracked branches are also removed. If the work is done correctly, you can achieve a high yield. Pinching is necessary to weaken and stop the growth of shoots that are more than 15 centimeters in length. The bending method can have a positive effect on the fruiting process.

in autumn

Autumn work in the garden is carried out after the leaves have fallen and the tree begins to winter.The main range of work is the removal of damaged and old branches. All branches on which there was no fruiting are also removed, if there were few fruits or they were of poor quality. You should also eliminate branches that cause shading and those shoots that have sprouted at an acute angle. After all the work, the cut areas are treated with a special varnish or oil paint.

The nuances of pruning apple trees of different ages

When pruning a young fruit tree, you should set yourself the task of providing good conditions for the further development of the apple tree. Pruning of old trees is carried out to enhance fruiting, eliminate crown defects and save strength for growth. This is also done to eliminate diseases and insects.

annual apple tree

During this period, the gardener faces several tasks: periodically trim the central shoots to restrain their growth and the proper development of lateral branches. And also the lower section of the trunk is formed. The first pruning is done after a year. After cutting off the central shoot at the “crown”, the growth of lateral branches begins to increase. It is necessary to shorten the long skeletal branches by 15 centimeters. Then you need to start forming the correct lower section. All young shoots that grow 40 centimeters from the ground must be removed.

Two year old apple tree

Pruning in the second year is required to form tiers of skeletal branches. If you haven’t cut the branches yet, then there will be at least two large branches on each tier, and the distance between them is about 50 centimeters. You will need to shorten the skeletal branches so that they are approximately at the same level. If the gardener wants to form a rounded shape, then the central shoot will need to be removed. You need to cut above the first branch.

Mature apple tree

To rejuvenate an adult apple tree, you will need to shorten the branches. To begin with, sanitary removal is carried out. After cleaning the apple tree, you need to rejuvenate the fruit tree. Cut off old branches that are no longer producing high quality apples. It is also necessary to remove vertical shoots that do not bring benefit, but only take away strength. Then crossed branches, root shoots and branches growing downwards are removed.

The final action consists of shortening the barrel. Tall trees can be shortened to 3 meters.

Attention! If the tree is more than 8 years old, this procedure is spread over a couple of years.

Features of pruning a dwarf apple tree

If you make a rootstock for a dwarf apple tree, then such a tree will produce abundant harvests and begin bearing fruit much earlier. If you do not prune a dwarf fruit tree, then its total fruiting period is often reduced to 3-4 years.

In the first year of life, the formation of the crown skeleton occurs, which is facilitated by pruning the trunk. The height of the cut directly depends on the type of fruit tree, but often the cut is no more than 70 centimeters. It is also necessary to cut off the side shoots so that the resulting tree looks like a ball.

The upper branches usually need to be shortened to promote growth and development of the central shoots, as the branches begin to develop more at the top of the fruit tree. However, branches on dwarf rootstocks are almost never completely cut out if they are healthy. It is necessary to leave several buds on them. It is also worth remembering about the fruiting of the tree - during this period the entire process should be carefully regulated and some buds should be removed.Otherwise, you can overload the apple tree and cause branches to break off.

Specifics of pruning a columnar apple tree

The columnar apple tree has an unusual crown shape. As a rule, the width of the tree is about 50 centimeters. Regular pruning is not required, but sometimes it is worth doing. A common problem is damage to the top of a columnar apple tree due to frost or pests. In this case, you need to find a replacement for the central shoot - choose a strong branch. Other vertical shoots will need to be cut off along with the crown. To avoid this, the center is wrapped up for the winter.

In the first year, as a rule, no intervention is required. However, as it grows, young shoots appear that compete with fruit-bearing branches and take nutrients from them. At this time, gardener intervention is required:

• young shoots are pinched at the same distance from the trunk (20 centimeters);
• as it grows, the pinching is 35 centimeters;
• already from the fourth year old branches are gradually removed.

The specificity of pruning such an apple tree is that periodic pinching does not require pruning. This process is gentle and the tree is not stressed.

Further care

After pruning, fruit trees must be provided with watering and feeding. When pruning in spring, fertilizer mixtures, which include nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, are added to the tree trunk circle.

During the autumn pruning period, complementary foods are introduced, which contain potassium and phosphorus, since the tree will need healing and strengthening. No nitrogen mixtures are added during this period.

When adding fertilizer mixtures, you will need to follow all instructions and rules.If you add too much fertilizer, then the tree will do more harm than good.