Should I prune these trees during winter?

[Taiji]

mac.JPG (58.54 KiB) Viewed 1164 times

I was wondering if I should prune these apple trees this winter? First one is a flowering crabapple(prairie fire); next one is a Macintosh; next is a Fuji. Planted them a couple of weeks ago, 2 were in 5 gal. containers, 1 was in a 7 gal. container.

Or, should I just leave them as they are for a year? thx

[!potatoes!]

I might do some minimal selective pruning in february or so...but would likely leave the middle one to fill out more.

[CharlieBear]

You want to prune to establish structure (proper scaffolding) the first 2 years and that is best done shortly before they come out of dormancy so late winter or very early spring. Ideally you want to have and even spacing of branches in all 4 compass directions. Generally, the strongest branches that come the closest to making a 90 degree angle to the trunk are selected. If the branches selected are strong, but the angle is weak, the angle is gently spread with clothes pins or branch spreaders to get a better angle. Note that apple trees are also pruned open bowl as well. The reasoning is that trees pruned in that fashion have the best airflow and are less likely to break later during wind storms. If those are dwarf trees than, I would also stake them now and keep them staked for several years (especially if you live in an area that is prone to wind). Going forward from that point, minimum you take out branches so they are not touching or crossing.

[JONA]

Hi,
I would suggest that the last tree in the photos is growing the best by far. All it needs on the winter prune is just a light tidy up....removing unwanted branches to allow good light.

With the first tree it would help if you could send a picture once the leaves have fallen. It's difficult to see its structure with all that leaf.

The middle tree is the most difficult to decide about as regards what to do.
It has two strong branches and one weak one.
As far as I can see you have two options.
Allow the tree to develope into a open bush type.
Here I would lightly tip the two strong branches just to keep them growing and also try to induce some side branches along their length.
The weak shoot I would hit harder ....perhaps halving its length to try to get it to strengthen up and start to catch the other two up, otherwise it will always stay weaker than the other ones.
Should add here that when you tip any of these branches always cut to an outward facing bud. This will keep the new growth growing outwards and not cutting across the trees centre.

Lastly...and perhaps the more drastic...is to turn it into a centre leader tree. This would mean removing one of the strong branches and making the other the main trunk of the centre leader. This would just need a light tipping to again try to induce side shoots which would become the trees cropping branches.

As CharlieBear has said...it will need a good strong stake to tie the tree too..so that it not only gave the tree support, but also gave you somewhere to train the centre leader up.

Hope that helps a little.

[Taiji]

Thanks for the advice. I will have to read and re read and digest what I need to do. The top tree is the crabapple (prairie fire); middle tree is mac(came from a 5 gal. pot), bottom tree is Fuji. (7gal. pot) I think the Fuji is older than the other 2, but don't know how old. Fuji and Mac are supposed to be semi dwarf, hope they are!

I have read since I purchased the prairie fire that it tends to have a droopy habit. Whether it is a semi dwarf or full size, I don't know. Crabapples are less likely to be grafted onto root stock no? Or am I wrong on that? This crabapple has branches from top to bottom.

[JONA]

You can prune Crabs as little or as much as you want. They will flower on one year old wood so there is not the need to produce spur and dard systems on the tree. All I would suggest is that you keep the top of the tree weaker than the bottom by removing any branch that starts to get thicker than the lower ones. This will stop the tree gradually getting higher and higher with all the growth on the top of the tree.
Crabs can be on rootstocks.....as this helps to control growth rates just as on fruiting trees.
The drooping habit is a good one to have as it helps keep the tree under control by slowing sap movement.

Fuji is a Triploid variety so is a naturally strong grower. It also means that it needs a pollinator, which your Crab and Mac will do, but it cannot pollinate others in turn. So the Crab is a vital tree for your Mac.

[Taiji]

Thank you, that is some good info. One of the reasons for buying the crab is that I suspected it would be a good pollinator. Prairie fire is supposed to be a splendid red color when in bloom, but I would also like to get a snow white flowering crab. In fact, the one I'd like is called Snowdrift. I think it makes it in this zone!

Around the other side of the house on this new property is that old woodpecker riddled tree that is loaded with apples. If the tree was planted when the house was built, then it was planted in 1939. Whether it is a good pollinator, or needs a pollinator, I'll probably never know, since I have no idea what the variety is. An expert might have a good educated guess though!

[JONA]

It's an interesting question that has come up over the last few years as to whether bees will be selective over the colour of the flowers they are working.
The idea being that if the malus is too different in colour from the apple flower that you want pollinated .they may not go from one to the other.
We used to use Ornamensis malus which has a lovely purple flower but we have moved to more 'appely' coloured ones ....just in case!
If your trees are cropping well..then no problem.

[Taiji]

Yes, I was reading about that the other day, that the blossom colors might need to be the same on pollinator and pollinatee for it to work. I figure if I have white and red I'll be ok! I did notice last year that the big old apple tree has white blossoms. White and red is a nice contrast too.