Pruning Apple trees

In order for fruit trees, in particular apple trees, to grow normally and to grow well, they need constant care. The earth around the trunks should always be cleared of weeds, loosened and fertilized. In early spring the soil needs to be dug, and in summer, after watering, periodically loosen.

To improve the quality and quantity of fruits, apple pruning is carried out, which consists in the formation of the correct crown, the regulation of fruiting and growth, and also in the removal of dry, broken and diseased branches. As a result, trees receive the necessary dimensions for a given garden, a strong trunk that can withstand an abundant harvest, and can also bear fruit more fruitfully and fruitfully.

However, pruning trees will have a positive result only if it is combined with proper and timely care of the soil and the use of the necessary fertilizer for apple trees.

Usually pruning apple trees is carried out in early spring when the temperature rises above zero. In the case of annual trees, this is necessary in order for the branches to grow faster, activating new lateral buds.

Pruning of apples more adults is done somewhat differently: several differently directed lateral shoots are selected, and the remaining ones are removed. The remaining ones are formed in such a way that their height from the ground surface is approximately the same. If any branch grows from the trunk at a very acute angle, it is cut off above the kidney that is located on the outside of the trunk. In this case, the central shoot, which the gardeners call a conductor, should be about a quarter of a meter above the side branches. Similarly, the subsequent tiers of apple trees are formed. Keep the distance between them you need to maximize - up to 50 centimeters. For this purpose, all lateral branches are plucked from the tops, starting from the moment when five or six leaves appear on them.

Adult trees are limited to a height of three and a half meters, and if the apple tree crown is wounded or killed for some reason, it is removed, forming a new one from the young shoot.

After the beginning of fruiting, pruning apple trees is rather aimed at removing the dried and old branches, as well as maintaining the growth of the tree. In general, experienced gardeners consider a good tree growth, reaching up to 30 centimeters, and in this case pruning is minimized as much as possible.

There are several rules for pruning apple trees.

First, the horticulturist should have a very sharp and clean garden tool, so that the tree does not have a "shaggy bark" from a blunt knife that hardly heals.

Secondly, you need a garden verified var, which, in extreme cases, can be replaced with oil paint, which has only linseed oil as a base: all other paints will simply burn the tree.

The next rule is a complete pruning of the apple tree only "on the ring", in no case leaving the stumps above the "ring" or carving out the very "ring" itself, which is an influx on the bark of a branch that extends from the main trunk at an angle of more than 30 degrees. If you do not adhere to these conditions, the tree will become ill for a long time, and the wood will dry up and crack, gradually turning into a focus of various pathogenic spores of fungi, carried by rain and wind.

And the last rule, which must be adhered to when pruning an apple tree, is a slowness. It is best, according to the saying, to measure several times and only then to prune. First you need to carefully look at each tree separately and only then start to cut, adjusting their actions already in the process of work.

Such a fruit tree, like an apple tree, whose pruning is considered a specific science of gardeners, will, with proper care, delight not only with a good harvest, but also with its beautiful appearance.