Feb 2011                                                 

February: The snow is deeper now , but with snow shoes you can walk on top of the snow. For pruning this raises you up and puts you into the upper branches of a semi dwarf apple tree. The snow seemed about 3 feet deep. It's made it easy to prune. With snowshoes on, you don't break through the snow and up in the branches they are in easy reach and the cuttings can be dragged on top of the snow to a pile.

In early spring, Lloyd Wright a twenty five year apple tree expert came on the scene. He asked me why I was removing certain branches. He felt the trees had a large tolerance for oozing black cancor and borer wood damage on the main trunk. He wanted to see shade covering cut branches like bandages. He did pruning like a surgeon and only removed the right branches. My sister and I had hacked back 1/2 of the branches on the tree. And then further proceeded to cut out the fledgling new growth which may have been the apple fruit for the following years. So with Lloyd as our guide, we reduced our pruning to removing the mostly end branches that over laid and shaded the buds beneath them. Prune correctly and watch the miracle. Well maybe.

Please note:  These are notes from the 2011 season. Through the course of the years we hope to learn how to prune fruit trees.