Apple crown formation: methods and seasonal features

You've probably noticed the difference between apple trees in an old private garden and farm fruit tree plantations. One or two mighty trees most often grow on the site. While on commercial sites, the plants are low and everything is, like a carbon copy, the same shape.

Of course, their height depends on the age of the apple trees, but professional gardeners have definitely worked on the silhouette. Is the appearance of trees so important, what does it affect and, most importantly, how to properly form the crown?

Content:

• Why you need to prune and guide branches
• Tiered-discharged
• Spindle-shaped crown
• Crown in the form of a bowl
• Vertical palmette
• Pruning older apple trees for rejuvenation
• Features of pruning at different times of the year

Why you need to prune and guide branches

A garden with young apple trees needs constant care and control over its life cycle.

One of the main elements of caring for fruit plantings is the formation of the crown. Using a certain algorithm, the structure of the structure, the shape and volume of the foliage are created.

The need for pruning apple tree branches is experienced throughout life. So, for trees of middle and old age, it is important to prune the crown in order to rejuvenate the culture.

Often the thickening of the tree is due to the fact that in cold weather the base trunk dies and the intensive development of lateral processes begins, which eventually turn into the main conductors.

Unfortunately, an illiterate procedure causes more damage to the plant than helps it develop correctly.

Young apple trees and those that have already begun to bear fruit are formed in different ways, the choice of which takes into account:

• The age of the tree.
• Grade.
• Vaccination type.

There are several purposes of giving a certain shape to young fruit trees.

The main ones are:

• The thickening of the apple tree causes the appearance of certain diseases. One of them is scab. For this reason, the fruits lose their taste and their appearance deteriorates.
• Weakened branches lose strength and break from strong gusts of wind. From freezing of apple trees with a large number of branches, the wood is weakened. This is typical for a variety such as Borovinka. For the same reason, the emergence of branching of the main branches at an acute angle is observed. This problem is found in apple trees of the Terentyevka variety.
• Special techniques and types of pruning maximize the penetration of natural light into the thickness of the leaves. Since the apple tree needs intense sunlight for rapid growth and proper development, allowing you to get fruits as soon as possible. Fruiting usually occurs a year or two earlier.
• The quality of apples also depends on apple tree shapes... Instead of wasting nutrient reserves on branches and leaves, some of the necessary elements go to the development of fruits. Thus, the sugar produced in the process of photosynthesis is accumulated directly in apples.
• It is necessary to form a reliable structure so that a fragile tree can withstand the tangible weight of a large number of apples. This moment is especially important for apple orchards in open, unprotected areas.
• As a result of breaking off branches on a tree, wounds appear that begin to rot, do not heal well and are more susceptible to frost. This leads to the occurrence of diseases and even the death of apple trees.
• In dense foliage, it is easier to settle for pests that can spoil the bark of a tree.
• The convenient shape of the plant allows you to collect the future harvest efficiently and without unnecessary hassle. With a tall and overgrown apple tree, this is much more difficult to do.

So, to get stable and good harvests should not be neglected such an important element of care as the formation of branches of the apple tree.

Tiered-discharged

This method is considered the most popular and the reason lies in the ease of the formation technique:

• The silhouette of the apple tree remains as natural as possible.
• The branches on the tree take the form of tiers.
• A feature of this type can be called increased tree yield and longevity.
• On the site, the apple trees are placed in such a way that they are spacious, leaving an interval of three meters between adjacent plantings.

It is necessary to start designing with this method after winter, measuring a plot on the seedling at a distance of half a meter from the soil. Recall that an annual plant is a grafted plant, while a stock can be up to two years old.

Above the place of the trunk, another 30 cm is marked. In this place, the first order will be located, consisting of three basic shoots.

After 10 months cut off the appendagesformed in the trunk. In a row, a shoot is kept at a distance of 30 cm, and then two, with a distance of 20. The principle of the method is in the mirror arrangement of the branches.

It is better to leave the branches up to 35 cm in size, as the smaller branches produce better apples.

For the next season, another row is laid at a distance of 45 cm from the previous level. Now the creation of the tier-sparse apple tree shape is finished. Then you just have to remove the base conducting branch above the single branch from above. Crop growth should not exceed 2 meters.

Spindle-shaped crown

This method is fast because a small number of shoots are processed... It is important with this method to properly cut the skeleton of the conducting branch.

The main processes can be removed with improvised tools, using, for example, a pruner, since the jewelry of the cut is not fundamentally important in this case.

A fusiform crown is formed for three years, although the processed apple tree will be able to bear fruit already in the second season:

• The main thing is that the basic shoots have time to appear. Usually trees with this shape are planted at a distance of two meters.
• A tree with a spindle-shaped plexus structure has a base stem with central processes that diverge in different directions.
• It is better to start the process from the first year of the tree's life. Plants that do not yet have branches.
• Cut off the apple tree, leaving most of the skeleton.
• When the first branches sprout on the main shoot, the first row is created in the middle of the trunk, rejecting the central parts.
• The next season, the skeleton is cut again.
• At the end of the third season, the creation of the "spindle" is completed.
• The plant stretches up to three hundred centimeters during this time.
• As a result, the stem is shortened over any non-vertical process.

Removing the stem is not so important for certain types of apple trees, since the formation of their lateral processes is faster. In this case, if the trunk grows 50 cm per season, it is shortened to symmetrically grow new branches.

Crown in the form of a bowl

This pruning technique is used for plants that do not grow well and are not durable.

The way of creating the structure resembles a tiered-sparse look, but has its own characteristics.

In the first row, three branches are bred in different directions, making sure that the divorce angle is approximately 130 degrees. The branch is shortenedleaving 45 cm from the trunk.

The task of this stage is to get two processes.

Directly the main stem is shortened over the central branch located on top. This procedure is recommended for the next year. At the same time, the skeleton of the tree will become stronger and more enduring.

Vertical palmette

Usually, this appearance is given to fruit trees growing along the perimeter of the site, in border zones as a barrier or along artificial objects. The algorithm for creating the structure for the curb shape of a tree takes four years. Then cultivated plantings begin to bring in the harvest.

When creating palmette:

• The branches of the skeleton turn into a surface lying in the same plane, and they are located on the same line.
• To achieve this effect, all the shoots are removed on the trunk in each row, leaving a pair, and with a different direction of growth.
• The levels are formed symmetrically vertically and have a distance of 85 cm.
• The shoots appearing on the main shoots and the skeleton are bent. It is on them that apples will ripen in the future.

The base branches should be tightened if they noticeably move away from the head. If the processes have not deviated enough, then, on the contrary, they are delayed.

With this shape, the tree grows in length according to the number of rows. It is possible to adjust the value when trimming the base shoots and the trunk annually. The gain over 12 months is shortened by a short distance. The tree grows horizontally by about two hundred centimeters.

Pruning older apple trees for rejuvenation

An amazing feature of the apple tree is its almost eternal ability to produce crops. Although, the intensity of fruiting decreases markedly over the years.

The owners preserve the long-lived apple tree in all possible ways, one of which is pruning. There is an opinion that it is more expedient to remove the old tree, replacing it with young seedlings of new varieties. If there is a desire to leave the old apple tree, then this is done by forming the basic structure of the branches.

The main task of pruning in this case will be the maximum opening of the center and thinning of the branches:

• Pruning for rejuvenation also restores productivity, increases fruiting time, while maintaining the size and flavor of apples.
• Experts advise, first of all, to shorten the trunk by a third, and then thin out especially thickened zones.
• The trim angle should be 45 degrees. For obligatory removal, shoots located at an acute angle to the trunk are recommended, since they break more often than others under the weight of apples.
• Rejuvenating procedures for the apple tree are carried out closer to spring, but until the tree has no leaves and is at rest.
• First of all, get rid of the upper branches.
• This is done for better conduction of sunlight to the lower parts, which means that their yield increases.
• The appearance of shoots will also increase, on which flower buds can later grow.

You can carry out rejuvenation in the summer. In the first half of summer, during the resting season of the fruit tree, a major pruning is carried out. So, the main branches are shortened by three quarters and the areas of greatest concentration are thinned out.

After the operation, water the apple tree abundantly. In the autumn, the tree trunk is whitewashed, protecting part of the bark of the standard area.

Features of pruning at different times of the year

Crown formation most often held in spring.

• This is done before bud break, usually in March and April.
• At this moment, the tree will not lose a lot of juice, since its intensive release has not yet begun, which means that the wounds on the apple tree will dry out and heal faster.

Pruning is also carried out in the summer.

• The reason for this is the appearance of many new shoots that need to be thinned out, and the rest to be bred in the required directions.
• However, there are also opponents of summer pruning.
• The main argument of experienced gardeners is that in the summer, the greatest amount of useful elements accumulates in the leaves of apple trees.
• Removing young shoots, valuable substances are lost.
• Therefore, experts recommend deleting only branches that compete with the conductor.
• During this period, you can get rid of the processes growing along the skeleton.

Pruning branches in the fall season.

• This does not in any way affect the amount of the future harvest.
• Moreover, the autumn method perfectly prepares the apple tree for wintering, freeing the tree from dried, large or non-fruiting branches.

Thus, all options for crown formation are reduced to ensuring the correct balance of the growth force of the base conductor and the main branches growing from it.

Obviously, the central conductor should be taller, stronger and more powerful than the scions. When the branches grow to the same level as the conductors, shortening is carried out.

Beginners are able to perform the necessary trimming themselves To do this, you need to choose the appropriate method and study main principles of work.

More information can be found in the video.