An Apple Tree a Day- But Can You Throw a Hat Through It?

One of life’s great experiences is being perched at the highest possible point of a tree.  I had the great fortune of spending several hours climbing trees today as I helped friends reclaim some mistreated apple trees to a form more fitting to the Malus genus.  These trees had obviously been given some harsh and unwise treatment by their previous stewards and our efforts today had us meandering across a line between art and science.

The University of Minnesota Extension has great resources for how to trim a tree and we went into our venture with a firm grasp of the scientific identification and reasoning behind various pruning remedies.  Once in the trees we were struck at how the diagrams and description came to life before our eyes in the form of rubbing branches, sucker growth, closely spaced branches, weak and narrow crotches and water sprouts. Oh the water sprouts!

Water sprouts are a clear consequence of topping a tree.  The practice of topping is much like it sounds.  In order to control the growth of the tree the top portion is simply cut off, usually as a flat or snowball shape.  This type intervention removes a lot of foliage from the tree while also creating large wound areas. As the tree begins to recover its ability to secure food through photosynthesis is diminished by the lack of leaves. This is a bad time in the life of the tree for a food shortage because there so many wounds to heal because of the dramatic topping that has occurred.  In an effort to grasp at every solar resource possible the tree produces vertical shoots high above the original tree top. The resulting accumulated growth, termed water sprouts, resembles a disheveled straw man whose hat has blown away in the wind.

Aesthetical harm is not the only result of water sprouts. These quick growing vertical shoots bring with them the other problems mentioned above which ultimately reduce the structural integrity of the tree and prevent regular and healthy growth patterns. The science of tree trimming has an answer for water sprouts and other harmful malformations – amputation.

Paging Dr. Lopper, Dr. Cindy Lopper.

Enter the amateur arborists with their cunning arborist humor and variety of human powered tools.  With three trees in front of us we walked out the door with a plan of attack, remove any deadwood then cut by the book. See a water sprout – cut it. Spot a tight crotch – cut it.  Detect a rubber – cut it.  The plan worked beautifully until the owner of the trees began to voice concerns about the dramatic effect the surgery was having on the patient. The tree was losing a lot of branches and once removed only time and patience could replace them.

The problem was that under the previous tyrannical tree cutting regime the trees had been forced into such high degrees of unnatural adaptations that once all of the problem areas were removed it appeared that there wouldn’t be any tree left. The concern was well founded and rooted in multiple implications. How would the view to the neighbor’s yard be restricted with only a few broad trunks to block the way? How would the view from the neighbor’s yard be restricted? What branches would produce the fruit that gives the tree its name? THE FRUIT! WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THE FRUIT?

Needless to say the production of brush slowed at that point to consider the implications and the next course of action.  Leaving some of the vertical poles was considered and several were left for a time but those gave way to the fact that they just looked weird. Eventually a system in which the wives stood on the ground and pointed to branches to be removed developed.  This modified approach worked well because it took into account the arboreal theories we were all committed to but also provided a broader visual perspective for how each cut impacted the look of the trees.  I must say I also liked the arrangement because it spread the blame for ruining the tree if it went really bad. 

In the end the trees look a lot more like other apple specimens than they did at the beginning of the day and I got spend several hours with great people and climbing trees.