Pruning a crab apple tree that is tuning into a shrub.

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3gardeners Mableton, GA(Zone 7a) Dec 30, 2008

My mom in MS has a young apple tree that is multi-trunked and turning more into a apple shrub instead of a tree. She thought she would prefer a tree in the open area of her field. (The tree is surounded by a small planting bed and is in full sun.)

Her are the suggestions I gave her based on the basic gardening info I have picked up here and there and from watching little bits from specials on orchards and visiting apple orchards every fall here in GA.

She can keep it prunned to whatever shape she wants. Some orchards keep the trees fairly low and wide and airy to promote easy access to the fruit for the sun to penetrate and the air to circulate and for the fruit to be picked.

Or she may want to limb it up like a "picture-perfict" tree I call them. Question 1: I do not know any thing about when you are supposed to prune apple trees. What time of year is that? Now?
I know that in general, you want to cut any crossing limbs to avoid rubbing.

If the plant is in "shrub form" now, how does she determine the "leader"? I felt it should be the stem that is the most straight and right up, not nessesarily the largest branch. These are not the same branch on this "shrub". If this is the case? Should she remove all other branches coming from the root ball? (And I'm not talking about stray suckers)

I hope I have described the situation clearly. My camera broke before I left today, or I would have photographed it. If someone could just send me to a pretty comprehensive article on this I would really appreciate it. I feel like now is the time we should be doing the shaping since the sap is down.

I hope y'all had a very happy Christmas and the New Year brings you Happyness and Prosperity!

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mrs_colla Marin, CA(Zone 9b) Jan 01, 2009

My two cents;
Prune an apple when it is dormant; when all the leaves have dropped. Don't prune too many big branches at once, take the whole as a process over some years, and open it up in the middle.
You can prune all the dead twigs and branches, take away crossed branches and remove some twiggy growth.

You might " sacrifice" some fruit, but renewing it every 5 years or so will keep the tree bearing more in the long run.

Take a picture of the tree, and then draw in sharpie lines in stages how you would like the tree to look in 3 years.
Use 3 colours for that, and let that be your guide.

Christie

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