4 Tips for Pruning Your Mature Apple Tree

Having mature trees in your home's landscape can be a great way to add beauty and interest to your yard. Fruit trees provide you with the added benefit of enjoying fresh produce throughout the growing season. If you have some apple trees in your yard, proper pruning is critical when it comes to ensuring these trees grow properly and yield apples that are edible for your friends and family.

Here are four tips to keep in mind as you prune your mature apple trees to ensure that the pruning process is completed correctly.

1. Create a Conical Shape

The most important thing that you can do when pruning your mature apple trees is to make sure that you are creating the proper shape while pruning. An apple tree should have a slightly conical or pyramid-like shape to it in order to ensure proper growth.

By keeping the tree fuller near the bottom and narrower at the top of the crown, sunlight can easily penetrate all the way through to the very lowest hanging branches. This allows all of the tree's branches to access the sunlight needed to produce ripe and delicious apples during the growing season.

Be sure that you begin your pruning with the intent to create a conical shape if you want your apple trees to continue growing properly in the future.

2. Remove Suckers

Another critical component in any effective pruning program for mature apple trees is the regular removal of suckers.

Suckers can be classified as vertical branches, which most often grow near the base of your apple tree. These suckers do not produce any fruit. Instead, they divert critical resources away from fruit-bearing limbs and compromise the yield of the tree as a whole.

In addition to checking for suckers near the base of your tree, you should look for reedy suckers in all of the Y-intersections and crotches throughout your tree's crown. Removing suckers annually will help you improve the overall health and production of your mature apple trees.

3. Eliminate Downward Growth

As you evaluate the growth pattern of your mature apple trees, you will want to check for any branches that appear to be growing downward. Downward growth cannot sustain the weight of apples as they begin to grow, and branches that grow downward can easily become a safety hazard as they weaken over time.

To prevent these branches from blowing off during a windstorm or diverting valuable resources from the rest of your apple tree, they should be removed. Cut the downward branch where it joins with a stronger horizontal branch to ensure proper growth from your apple tree in the future.

4. Prune During Winter

When it comes to pruning mature apple trees, you should always schedule your pruning activities for a dry winter day. By waiting until your apple tree has no leaves, blossoms or fruit to prune, you are better able to see the growth pattern of the branches and make wise pruning decisions.

Trimming back your mature apple tree when it’s dormant will also ensure that you are able to avoid the spread of disease or pests, which are more active during the warm months. You will also avoid potential damage to delicate new growth that could compromise your tree's fruit yield.

Knowing how to properly care for your mature apple trees through proper pruning makes these fruit trees a valuable part of your home's landscape. By consulting with the professionals at One Tripp Tree Service, you will be able to establish a pruning schedule that will help you keep your mature apple trees growing properly well into the future.