Pruning techniques of Apple trees in Winter

Winter shearing is one of the most important control measures in the process of apple cultivation. Farmers can not only trim the tree shape, balance the tree potential, improve ventilation and light transmission conditions, but also increase the yield and quality of next year. So how to trim apples in winter? Let's take a look.

1. Pruning time

The period from defoliation to budding is the period of pruning in winter, and the growth of apples is stagnant in winter. at this time, pruning has less weakening and good renewal effect on the tree, which is the main period of apple shaping. But pruning also varies from tree to tree. Winter pruning can be divided into three types: adult trees, early fruit trees and young trees according to their age.

2. Adult tree pruning

The purpose of adult apple tree pruning is to improve light, improve branch quality, and improve yield and quality, so the key point of pruning is to remove the overdense branches of more than two layers in batches, so that the big branches of more than two layers extend outward in a line, so that the first layer has enough light. If the crown is too high, you should gradually lose your head and be happy depending on the strength of the plant, and control the plant below 3.5 meters. Also pruning off strong branches, cross branches, whorled branches, only long branches, after pruning to maintain large branches bifurcated branches, branchlets bifurcated more, after pruning to smear healing agent in the wound, erase cut buds, so as to avoid bacteria invasion.

3. Pruning the first fruit trees

The young trees planted for 5-8 years have entered the fruiting stage, and the focus of pruning the primary fruit trees is to clean up the dense branches between the layers, improve the light conditions of the plants, and make the fruiting parts slowly transition to the backbone branches. The dense area should be cleaned 2-3 times a year, and it should be cleaned within 3 years. After several years of cleaning, the small crown sparse layer shape retains 5 main branches and 1-2 auxiliary branches, while the free spinning shape needs to retain 10-13 main branches.

4. Pruning young trees

The pruning of young trees should be carried out in accordance with the principle of light weight, equal emphasis on shaping and fruit, and promoting early yield. In the first year, all the main branches on the middle trunk were pruned from the base to make them germinate again, so that the branch age of the main branch was lower than that of the middle trunk, so as to maintain the advantage of the middle trunk. In the second year, except for the main branches that are too thick at the base to be pruned, all the other branches should be retained.

The above is the introduction of winter pruning techniques for apple trees. I hope it can help you. If you want to know more about it, please follow us.