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The old apple trees in the garden are a piece of our history, the legacy of our grandparents, who took care of them all their lives. We remember how we feasted on delicious and juicy apples in childhood, and how in adulthood, after working in the garden, we rested in the shade of spreading branches. We have already grown up and must help older people and their favorites - garden apple trees. May they delight us with their presence for many, many years to come. If for loved ones the main thing is our care and care, then in an old apple orchard the first and most effective help is rejuvenating apple tree pruning very old age.
Old apple tree after pruning
Let's give apple trees a second life
Wild apple trees in their natural habitat can live and bear fruit for up to 150 years, but the lifespan of garden cultivated apple trees is much lower; on average, such a tree lives from 50 to 70 years. The owners of apple trees grow old along with them and are no longer able to do the hard work associated with constant pruning of branches, and without pruning, the apple trees begin to get sick, the yield decreases, but the taste of the apples remains invariably excellent. For this reason, many owners of old apple orchards try not to destroy, but to revive these trees to a new life. Anti-aging pruning of apple trees will help in this noble cause, and we will help novice gardeners with our advice and recommendations.
Pruning in spring
Pruning old apple trees for the purpose of rejuvenation, it can be carried out both in the spring, before the buds bloom, and in the fall, when the tree “goes” into hibernation.
Benefits of spring pruning:
- there are no leaves on the tree yet, all the branches, both thick and thin, are clearly visible;
- there is freer access to the trunk of the apple tree, because overwintered dead grass is easy to remove;
- with the onset of warm spring days, the apple tree quickly gains strength, and in the summer it is easier for it to recover after pruning the branches;
- the branches are more elastic, can be easily pruned, at temperatures above +4°C you can use garden pitch to treat the cut areas, at low temperatures the pitch will not strengthen on the cut, you will have to buy oil paint, which increases the gardener’s costs;
- In spring and summer, new growth of young branches is intensively formed, on which apples will ripen next year.
Rejuvenating pruning of apple trees in spring
We invite you to familiarize yourself with the pruning rules and the sequence of performing such work in the spring:
- Visual overview of the apple tree. Examine the tree from all sides, determine which branches need to be trimmed first, and so that you can navigate this issue, study the step-by-step pruning diagram. Old apple trees are overgrown with many branches; it will be difficult to do all the pruning in one go. The diagram shows the pruning sequence for three years.
- Preparing tools. For thin branches, you can use a regular lopper or pruning shears with a long handle; thick branches are cut with a garden hacksaw or electric saw.
- Removing dead wood from the trunk and along the entire tree trunk circle. Use a hoe to chop the dry grass in a circle about 2 meters in diameter, and use a rake to move all the dead wood outside this circle so that it does not interfere with your free movement around the trunk of the apple tree.
- Clearing dry branches. Dry branches can break off at any moment, so it’s worth getting rid of them first, so as not to injure yourself and not expose your helpers to such danger.
- Rejuvenating apple tree pruning (for three seasons). Cut down the branches according to the diagram above.
- Disposal of trimmed waste Collect all the cut branches in one pile, burn them in the garden or take them to a landfill. Such material should not be left in the garden; old branches can be infected with diseases, insect larvae, and adult pests can overwinter in them.
- Processing slices. Immediately after pruning, treat the cut areas, trim them with a sharp garden knife so that there are no burrs or other irregularities, and cover them with garden varnish or oil paint.
You will learn practical tips on how to properly prune in spring by watching a video that shows methods of cutting branches and explains which method is better and why, cut “on a stump” or “on a ring”. We will define these concepts a little later in the written guidelines.
Pruning in autumn
In the autumn, work to rejuvenate old apple trees is carried out in a similar manner to that which you read at the beginning of the article.If this work is done in the spring, then in the fall the whole pruning process comes down to tree crown formation (see diagram below). Pruning should be minimal, since the apple tree, which has recovered over the summer after spring pruning, should be healthy and strong.
Scheme for autumn pruning of an old apple tree
After rejuvenating pruning in the fall and the formation of the tree crown, care should be taken to ensure that our apple tree overwinters well. To do this, we wrap the trunk, starting from the ground itself, and the lower branches with insulating material, and treat the entire apple tree against diseases and harmful insects. You can watch an educational video for beginner gardeners below.
Trimming methods
In this section we will tell you why it is better to cut branches “into a ring” rather than “into a stump”. First look at the photo. You see the trunk of an apple tree with long shoots of already cut branches (stumps). Such trimmings are called “stump” cuts.
Trimming to the stump
Making anti-aging pruning of an apple tree in this way is easy, simple and quick. But there are very significant disadvantages of using this method:
- On such prunings, in one season, many tops can grow - shoots that grow in height along the trunk of the apple tree and never bear fruit. They take nutrients from the tree, but do not produce fruit. Thicken the crown of the apple tree, shading the fruiting shoots from the sun.
- Stumps are an additional place for pests to live and lay eggs.
- Stump cuts, if you do not constantly monitor them, are a source of infection of the tree with fungal diseases, as a result they quickly rot, and the disease gradually spreads to healthy parts of the apple tree.
- Under the influence of unfavorable weather conditions, it is the stumps that are destroyed first; rainwater or snow penetrates through the damaged structure into the branch, and then into the main trunk, forming holes. Small rodents, squirrels and mice settle in hollows, gnawing their holes in the soft wood.
The benefit from such hemp is small, but it is there; If you want to graft a new cutting onto an old apple tree, then do it on exactly this shoot from the old cut branch. In this case, he will help you, but you need to make the rootstock correctly, otherwise nothing will work. Let an experienced gardener who knows all the tricks of this process come to your aid.
At the junction of branches, all trees have a kind of ring-shaped influx. It is clearly visible on old trees. When rejuvenating an apple tree, this ring must be left intact and undamaged; the wood tissues of the ring contain substances that help the tree quickly recover after pruning the branches. If the branch you are ready to cut is very large and thick, you need to make the cut in two steps. Saw off most of the branch at a distance of 20-30 cm from the ring, as is done when pruning “to a stump”, then remove the remaining part of the branch, retreating from the main trunk by 1-2 cm (see photo).
Ring trimming
The cut should be close to the trunk, almost merging with it, but it should not go deep into the tree or leave an extra part of the cut branch. On the resulting cut, you need to remove all the irregularities and burrs; use a sharp garden knife for this.Then the pruning area is treated with disinfectants: brilliant green, potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide, and completely coated with protective agents, garden varnish or special oil paint.
For such processing, there are also old folk methods:
- take 3 parts cow dung, 1 part plain clay, 1 part ash;
- move all components carefully;
- Gradually, constantly stirring the mixture, add water until you get the consistency of thick porridge;
- Coat the cut area with a thick layer (2-3 cm), let it dry a little and repeat the procedure again.
Many gardeners who have gained experience in rejuvenating pruning of apple trees advise using just this method of pruning - “on the ring”, it injures the apple tree less and will not harm the tree in the future.
Stripping and processing of trunks
Over time, the trunks of old trees become covered with pieces of bark that has already dried, but has not yet fallen. Spider bugs, harmful and useful, hide under them; the branches are overgrown with moss and lichen, which blocks access to the plant's life-giving rays. The final step in rejuvenating old apple trees will be the healing and restoration of the bark, which should also be taken care of. Do it this way:
- to the height of your growth, clean the trunk of the apple tree and the branches adjacent to it that you can reach, you don’t need to make a lot of effort and literally scrape the trunk, it will be enough to clean off the freely falling dead bark;
- process all peeled places with disinfectants, wiping them with a damp sponge or soft brush;
- to restore and renew the bark, apply a solution of mullein with clay and ash to these surfaces, we wrote about it at the beginning of the article, repeat the procedure after a while.
The process of rejuvenating old apple trees is the work of more than one season, at least 2-3 years will pass, and only after that you will see a beautiful tree in your garden, which through your efforts has been revived to a new life.
