daniel
in Fruit & veg
Hi this is my first post and not sure if it is the right place for this or not. Anyway if its not, my apologies. So I have a mature James Grieve apple tree and as I was not sure or to be honest feart to do it my self, (so for want of a better word) I got a so called professional tree surgeon to prune and take it back as it was meant to be on a dwarf stock root sorry I digress to cut a long story short he came and done it when I was out and he certainly cut the tree back I was shocked and upset at the state of the tree. I asked him to take it back in height by one quarter he took it back by three quarter's or more with a chainsaw totally butchered it. When it started to grow back the new growth was as strait as a rule, and not strong, and now I think my tree has brown rot as the fruit all of it has dark ugly cracks and splits all over, it also now has canker. Should I just cut the tree down and burn it or is it saveable he did the same thing to my pear tree as well, also with similar results. I Cant publish photos at the moment. So can anyone help with this before I cut the tree down oh I did get wonderful fruit before this was done.
Thank you
Daniel
Thank you
Daniel
0
Posts
I have a Katy on dwarf rootstock about 8ft high and 8-10ft wide she's been there for 20yrs+. I had some landscaping done and they butchered it in a similar manner to yours.
It sulked for 2 seasons but is laden with apples again this year.
The long straight shoots are known as water shoots and can be pruned back hard at this time of year, but if your tree has already had a major shock, it may be safer to prune next year.
I'm no expert on pruning apples, so see what others think
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Other than that, i agree with Pete that you should leave it alone for this year, given the shock it has had. Then in midsummer next year you can start pruning the watershoots, choosing some to become the new framework of the tree and taking the others back quite hard.
I found these instructions which I what I follow for my dwarf apple Katy -
(I can't remember where I copied this from)-
Winter pruning -
THE THIRD WINTER AND SUBSEQUENT PRUNING. Once again cut back the central leader to about 9 inches ensuring you prune to a bud on the opposite side to the previous Winter. Once the tree has reached the required height of about 7 feet, the leader should not be pruned in Winter but cut back to its origin in Summer. If the growth is vigorous, this can be done in May and further shortened in August.
This is also the time to completely remove any unwanted branches.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.