How to rejuvenate an apple tree with pruning + scheme

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 ate delicious and juicy apples in childhood, how in adulthood, after labors in the garden, we rested in the shade of spreading branches. We have already grown up and must help the elderly and their favorite 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 the old apple orchard the first and most effective help is rejuvenating pruning of apple trees of a very advanced age.

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 duration 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 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 apples remains invariably excellent. For this reason, many owners of old apple orchards are trying 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 of old apple trees for the purpose of rejuvenation can be carried out both in spring, until the buds have blossomed, and in autumn, when the tree “goes” into hibernation.

Benefits of spring pruning:

• there are no leaves on the tree yet, all branches, both thick and thin, are clearly visible;
• there is more free access to the trunk of the apple tree, because the overwintered dead grass is easy to remove;
• with the onset of warm spring days, the apple tree is quickly gaining strength, and in summer it is easier for it to recover from pruning;
• the branches are more elastic, freely prunable, at a temperature of more than + 4 ° C, you can use garden pitch to process saw cuts, at low temperatures, the pitch will not harden on the cut, you will have to buy oil paint, which increases the gardener’s costs;
• in spring and summer, a new growth of young branches is intensively formed, on which apples will ripen next year.

Anti-aging pruning of apple trees in spring

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the rules for pruning and the sequence of performing such work in the spring:

1. Visual overview of the apple tree. Inspect the tree from all sides, determine which branches need to be cut first, and in order for you to navigate this issue, study the step-by-step pruning scheme. 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.

   

2. Preparation of tools. For thin branches, you can use a conventional pruner or long-handled pruner, cut thick branches with a garden saw or electric saw.
3. Removal of dead wood from the trunk and on the entire trunk circle. Chop dry grass with a hoe in a circle of diameters of about 2 meters, move all dead wood outside this circle with a rake so that it does not interfere with your free movement near the trunk of an apple tree.
4. Cleaning of dry branches. Dry branches can break off at any time, so you should get rid of them first so as not to injure yourself and not endanger your assistants.
5. Rejuvenating apple tree pruning (for three seasons). Cut branches according to the diagram above.
6. Disposal of trimmed waste Collect all the cut branches in one pile, burn it in the garden or take it to a landfill. Such material should not be left in the garden, old branches can be infected with diseases, insect larvae, adult pests can winter in them.
7. Slicing processing. Immediately after trimming, process the cut points, trim them with a sharp garden knife so that there are no burrs and other irregularities left, cover with garden pitch or oil paint.

You will learn practical tips on how to properly prune in the spring by watching a video that shows how to cut branches and explains which method is better and why, cut “on a stump” or “on a ring”. In the written guidelines, we will define these concepts a bit later.

Pruning in the fall

In the autumn, work on the rejuvenation of old apple trees is carried out in the same manner that you familiarized yourself with 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, as an apple tree that has recovered over the summer after spring pruning should be healthy and strong.

Scheme of autumn pruning of an old apple tree

After carrying out rejuvenating pruning in the fall and forming the crown of the tree, care should be taken to ensure that our apple tree winters well. To do this, we wrap the trunk, starting from the ground itself, and the lower branches with insulating material, and we treat the entire apple tree against diseases and harmful insects. You can watch an informative video for beginner gardeners below.

Ways of trimming

In this section, we will explain why it is better to cut the branches “on the ring” and not “on the stump”. Look at the photo first. You see the trunk of an apple tree with long shoots of already cut branches (stumps). Such trimmings are called “stump” cuts.

Pruning “on a stump”

Making a rejuvenating pruning of an apple tree in this way is easy, simple and fast. But there are very significant disadvantages of using this method:

1. On such prunings, many tops can grow in one season – shoots that grow in height along the trunk of an 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 fruit-bearing shoots from the sun.
2. Hemp is an additional habitat for pests, laying their eggs.
3. Sections of stumps, if you do not constantly monitor them, are a source of infection of the tree with fungal diseases, because of this they quickly rot, and the disease gradually passes to healthy parts of the apple tree.
4. Under the influence of adverse weather conditions, it is the stumps that are destroyed first of all, 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 soft wood.

The benefits of such stumps are small, but they are; if you want to graft a new cutting onto an old apple tree, then do it on exactly such a process from the old cut branch. In this case, he will help you, only you need to do the stock 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 influx in the form of a ring. In old trees it is clearly visible. When rejuvenating pruning of an apple tree, this ring must be left intact and undamaged; there are substances in the tissues of the wood of the ring that help the tree recover quickly after pruning. If the branch you are about to cut is very large and thick, cut it in two steps. Saw off most of the branch at a distance of 20-30 cm from the ring, as is done when pruning “on a stump”, then remove the rest of the branch, retreating from the main trunk by 1-2 cm (see photo).

Trimming “on the ring”

The cut should be close to the trunk, almost merge with it, but you can 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 bumps and burrs, use a sharp garden knife for this. Then the pruning site is treated with disinfectants: brilliant green, potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide, and completely coated with protective agents, garden pitch or special oil paint.

For such processing, there are old folk methods:

• take 3 parts cow dung, 1 part plain clay, 1 part ash;
• carefully move all components;
• gradually, constantly stirring the mixture, add water until the consistency of thick porridge is obtained;
• apply a thick layer (2-3 cm) on the cut, let it dry a little and repeat the procedure again.

Many gardeners who have gained experience in anti-aging pruning of apple trees advise using just this method of pruning – “on the ring”, it injures the apple tree less and does not harm the tree in the future.

Cleaning and processing of trunks

The trunks of old trees over time are covered with pieces of bark, already dried up, but not yet fallen. Under them, spider bugs, harmful and useful, are hidden, the branches are overgrown with moss and lichen, which blocks access to the plant of life-giving sunlight. The final chord of 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 get, you do not need to make great efforts and literally scrape the trunk, it will be enough to clean off the freely falling dead bark;
• treat all cleaned 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, after a while repeat the procedure.

The process of rejuvenating old apple trees is the work of more than one season, it will take at least 2-3 years, and only after that you will see a beautiful tree in your garden, which, through your efforts, has been revived to a new life.