When removing a branch, always cut just after the end of the branch collar. When pruning an apple tree, you’ll want to ensure you make pruning cuts in the right position. Who knows what that pruner was used for last time?!? After cleaning the pruner, apply a light oil to the blades for smooth cutting in the orchard. By doing so, you’ll reduce the risk of spreading disease in your orchard. Clean your pruner with hot water and soap. Pruning Saw – While there are specific saws made for pruning, the saw cut is so rare in the home orchard, I’d suggest that just about any handsaw from the woodshop will suffice for cutting off a limb if need be.Ĭleaning your tools won’t take long but it can prevent all sorts of trouble.For the home orchard, a basic $20-30 lopper will suffice. Because this tool is used much less often than the hand pruner, I don’t recommend a professional-grade tool in this case. Lopper – For larger branches or a limb on more mature trees, you’ll need a lopper.You can also buy replacement parts for Felco pruners, which makes them the obvious long-term choice for a hand pruner! The F8 has a fantastic grip, and it can handle branches up to about 2″ inches thick. About 5 years ago I made the investment in a Felco F8 Hand Pruner and it hasn’t let me down. In my early years growing apple trees, I bought many inexpensive pruners that rust out, get stuck, and are difficult to fix. Hand Pruner – 95% of your apple tree pruning will be with a hand pruner.We’re going to need a few basic tools to prune an apple tree: While there are other fascinating pruning methods and growing systems used on commercial apple orchards to maximize production per acre (like high-density plating systems), they certainly don’t have the same aesthetic appeal as a well-maintained central leader tree. This method of pruning apple trees will provide a traditional, round, almost Christmas-tree shape for our tree. For the backyard orchard, we’re going to use the central-leader pruning method.
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