This is the Future of Home Fruit Tree Training...
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Smart fruit tree training in action, working with fundamental principals and the trees natural tendencies to get branches where and when we want them. I hope to develop this further, and create an easily transmitted and applied system, because it has served me so well. This work can be supported in any way that supports my channel like views and sharing videos, as well as through www.patreon.com/skillcult and direct donations.
ARS long reach pruner. There are numerous models and two different cutting heads. I recommend the 10 foot (longest one) for sure. I have not tried the cut and hold head, but apparently it only cuts smaller wood, so that is a real problem for pruning. read reviews to decide. BTW, I think for many people, a good orchard ladder would be a better first purchase, but that would depend on the trees and activities. Having both saves me vast time and effort moving ladders around. amzn.to/2Kzizc8
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Standard gear I recommend. I either use or have used all of it.
Council Tool Boys Axe: amzn.to/3z0muqI
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King two sided sharpening stone: amzn.to/32EX1XC
Silky f180 saw: amzn.to/3yZzM71
ARS 10 foot long reach pruner: amzn.to/3esETmM
Victorinox grafting/floral knife: amzn.to/3Jki1E9
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The white sheet is super helpful!!!! This video is super helpful for me as a new fruit tree grower. Thank you!
Hi SkillCult you should totally consider doing some video consulting for $ you're knowledge would be well worth quite a high price for custumized assesments/advice!
I guess I always think I'm not going to be able to help enough, but maybe...
Duuude keep humble but please never sell yourself short one bit....you tha man! Your attitude is the cherry-on-top of a mountain of knowlede! i would pay a lot of dollas to hear what you had to say (and i don't have much!) My Mom's old 'farm' is in West-Coast Sweden so i'm a trapped appartment dweller in Kali for now...Anyhow, Thank You for You, i am honored with your reply!
I don't know if he has any books but I'd love a book on "here's all the steps to get your tree to produce quality fruit." There's so many different ideas out there, I don't really know who to emulate.
I've been practicing this method after watching this video 2 years ago. I have to say, the notching worked well for me. My two and a half year old trees responded properly and I'm off to a good start. Thanks so much.
that's great to hear.
I've been doing similar for many many years. However instead of notching, I remove the central leader just above the top scaffold branch. Then all the scaffold branches send up central leader wanna-bes. For the following years, I remove any branch on the scaffolds that grows toward the center of the tree. Two or three times a year, I clip the growing tip of vigorous just above a bud that is pointing out and down. This trains the tree to have a large strong umbrella shape and opens the center to sunlight so that north growing branches get plenty solar energy. 🙌
🤔Solar energy is only half the nutrition program. My trees are heavily mulched with wood chips to encourage mycorrhizal fungus to feed the tree nutrients in exchange for solar produced sugars. And to keep the soil moist and the microbes alive.
**I have used this method successfully on plum, pear, and apple. Peaches have been uncooperative.
Yeah, I've noticed the same thing with other folks as well. They keep having issues with fungus and diseases (leaf curl etc.) when they mulch with wood chips.
@@saucywench9122 i dont have any problems mulching with wood chips. my trees are healthier from the mulch. i actually dug one up and moved it. the apple tree had this white fungus all over the fine roots. i couldn't break the rootballl up like a bare root tree. i guess its a problem i had such a amazing fungal network on my roots.
That is usually called delayed open center. The training methods are almost the same, it just one keeps the leader and one doesn't. Here I mostly grow modified central leader, but have a few delayed open center trees. The center helps a little with sunburn here where that is a big problem on horizontal and diagonal branches. It still gets enough light into the tree if the top is kept pretty small. I don't have an abundant supply of chips and too many trees to keep covered since they rot away. I have enough biomass, but I char almost all of it and don't want to buy a chipper. I've used a lot of chips to establish trees though.
It is so cool, that study is available on line. You are so much less dry, and very fun to watch. Thank you. My seeds, that I got from you are up and happy. Great instructions.
What a ludicrously informative video. Thank you very much!
Ha ha, I like that, "ludicrously informative"
Hey Steven. What ever happens in the future. I sincerely hope everything works out in your favour and some. You are truly a very kind hearted man indeed. Regards 🇦🇺🦘
I have learned a lot from you. I planted about 100 seeds yesterday from apples and pears. I have 10 wild trees in my basement in pots from seed. Next week at my cottage we are putting in 29 fruit trees, some named varieties and some “domestic apple” which are wild apples I think. Also, we searched my property and found 4 wild apples and a wild crab. Ty for the info. I might even try to graft.
Definitely learn to graft! It's really easy on apples and pears especially. Then everyone of those trees is limitless potential to grow what you want. Just get some pruning, and practice a little and just do few and see if they take on branches that don't matter. You can even just cut a shoot off a tree and graft it back on just to see if it works. I have a vid on grafting with home supplies. You don't need to buy anything usually.
I talk to my plants and trees like I talk to my critters, with love.
I sing to them, tell them I love them and pray over them.
They respond when they know we love and care for them.
They can hear you.
Speak kindly and listen to them with love and they will tell you what they need.
Shalom
😊🌎🙏🏼💕🌴☀️
I'm so glad I found your videos! I just bought 2 apple trees and was talking to the arborist I bought them from and asked if he has ever notched apple trees, I had the thought because I've had success notching the trees in my house, he said yes but that I should still chop the top of my trees down🙄 I'm not doing it. This is exactly what I had in mind and I'm so glad to FINALLY find someone who has had success with this method I had in my mind! Thank you!!!
Yep, people will insist that you must. In some cases it's a good idea, but it's not necessary across the board and more often than not, it's not necessary. One concern is that the plant doesn't have enough root to support a big top, but you can also deal with that by removing some growing points, rather than wood too.
@@SkillCult I just planted them today and they do not have much of a root system at all so that was my plan, to remove most growing points.
Hey, firstly I hope you dont have to move and if there is anything we can do to help let us know. Second I've been commenting on your videos for a bit. But I told you I started my orchard. I just planted about 25 different fruit trees. The verieties are, apple, pear, peach, plum, nectarines, Pluot, persimmon, fig, cherry, prune(plum lol). A few more shrubs and kiwi. But if your interested I would be willing to train all of them like this for the sake of research. Just put them in the ground about two weeks ago. We live in the Sequoias.
Also, I know this is fairly forward but where we live is pretty well unknown. It's also in expensive to live in this area. Great community. So if anything happens and your looking for places let me know. We can private message or something. Just an option.
-Daniel
Thanks Daniel. yeah, please do to try these methods out. Only thing I have had real trouble with so far is sweet cherries. They just want to throw whorls of branches that are spaced far apart. Watch the video on tree forms that I linked there. for full sized and large dwarf trees, those two forms, modified central and delayed open center will cover you pretty good. Try to do it soon though, best before they break dormancy.
I'd probably try to stay in this area, I have life here (not much, but some ha ha) and I think land prices are about to tank. Weed has been the basis of the economy here for a long time, and with that falling apart and now the economy tanking, I think prices will plummet for a short time at least. Hopefully what I have to offer will be even more in demand than usual and I'll do okay or even better. In the last recession, my other business that my ex runs teaching primitive skills did way better ha ha. Anything that keeps my channel growing helps and otherwise, patreon and donations for now. I hope to get more stuff out for sale this year including some books, but we'll see.
@@SkillCult I think a book on this would do really well.
Dude your pruning videos are the best - you take a principles-based approach to teaching, rather just prescribing things and saying: "do this!" and it makes you a FAR better teacher than most other sources.
I think one of the challenging parts of this is going to be coming up with a system and packaging ideas in a way that is really simple to understand, but still communicates some understanding of the problem for contingency. One thing about the clip and pray method, as lame as it is, is that it can be applied across the board and it's easy to communicate. It's one thing to communicate a bunch of core principals to people that care, but some average person that just bought a fruit tree and wants to spend less than 5 minutes learning what to do to it is another problem. But I would definitely still try to communicate some basic understanding, while giving something like a paint by numbers, system.
This stuff has massive potential to help a lot of people...and grow your channel. I think you’re dead on that it has to be paint by number to gain that kind of mass appeal. And it’s gonna have to be adapted to the mass audience that is buying nursery trees rather than whips. If I look at a nursery tree (about to give up on that), I look for ones with scaffolds I could adapt to this and cut the rest off. Maybe the paint by number for nursery trees should be cutting off ALL the laterals year one, and then notchinf/ training some buds in optimal directions?
I don’t know how Pinterest works, but can you promote this info there?
Rooting for you to stay on your place. Walking away from the apple breeding project would be a bummer. Let us know what we can do to help.
@@SkillCult This might be an instance where the "law" of the diffusion of innovation applies.
ruclips.net/video/VVXuN2drSpg/видео.html is a good short video kinda talking about it. He's looking at it in the context of business, but the same applies to the adoption of any new practice, like your pruning methods.
You don't necessarily need to convince everyone or make it easily accessible to the uninitiated. If you can get the first ~15-18% of the fruit-tree owning population on board with these methods, then the general population will eventually follow. Those people won't adopt a new method - they'll only adopt it if enough other people have tried and confirmed it first, so you need us early-adopters to kinda help you bridge that gap to the rest of the population.
With time, it'll happen. When a new ideas time has come, nothing can stop it.
Easily one of my favorite channels.
Truly, thank you and I sincerely hope that everything works out well for you and yours.
Best explanation about tree structures ever. I have learned so much from the video. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and passion about apple trees.
"OH NO....I need to be the top of the tree..." I will be saying this randomly now, thanks Steven...;)
Ha ha. The secret life of trees. Actually, that would make a cool childrens book on how trees grow. The little bud that could. I might sketch that out and see what it looks like.
Would be great a collaboration between your two channels.
Awesome content and really nice taste
Two great channels.
I've taken your advice on modified central leader (delayed open center) style pruning, and have set up a dozen trees that way. I also read the 1930 publication "A Study of the Framework of the Apple Tree...", that you recommended. I'll let you know how it progresses.
I am using stones of various weight that i afix at about 2/3rds of the branches current length to weigh them down. This might help you avoid the branches tendency to "curl" upwards even with the cloth pins adjusting the angle at the intersection.
I did this too. Gotta make sure the stones are on the ground or a windy day can cause some trouble 👍
I hope you stay on that property. Ive gone thru phases on the whole homesteading videos on youtube and yours sticks the best. Your content is some of my favorite. Cant wait to get started in apple growing after some really good success with peaches here in texas. Keep doing what youre doing. Its infinitely invaluable
When I went to school, my teacher had told us to leave a bit more than the branches we expect to grow. The more laterals you can leave on your trees during the first years, the more primary (length) growth you let the tree do, the more secondary growth(girth) it makes. I was curious if you had problems, especially since you start building your scaffolds higher than I would, with top-heavy trees toppling over. I am only shooting the shit here and absolutely love the work you do. Thank you for all of the info!
I haven't had a problem, but I don't normally train high like that. I did tie this one off for last year to pull it back, as I grew it I think 5 feet the previous year and it was leaning away from some shade trees. It's okay now and thickened up a lot. I think it will stiffen up a lot more this season. This approach is a compromise between driving growth where you want it and leaving leaf surface. One thing is that when there are fewer shoots, those left grow longer, so they also have more leaves and that probably makes up for it a little. I don't think it makes up entirely for the loss of a lot of buds, but so far it seems to be plenty in my experience In the framework study as I recall, they posed the question of whether it was best to take all the extra shoots off in year two or leave some, considering that unanswered as they didn't do any controlled experiment for that. I've done it consistently and it seems to work out. I think at worst, a person would have to stake a tree for a year or two. That could be a problem in a commercial setting, but easy for home producers on a small scale.
@@SkillCult You really have a brilliant way of putting your knowledge forward. I'll be following this pruning project very closely.
The tree in this video might be one of those that has a lower sunshine threshold, for lack of a better term, than is common. I grafted Wynoochee Early some years ago. It was touted as very early, tasty & keeping until Christmas. Well, that is west of the Cascades. I'm just east of the desert in WA state, where Wynoochee refused to grow for at least 4 weeks each summer. Too much light for it. As it turned out, the fruit was insipid and mushy before September. Next! (Maiden Blush now stands in that spot, which was grown here by settlers - ought to do fine.)
Ever since I heard the story of how you thought that Rooster was quiet when he was young makes the loud calls and your comments hilarious
Oh yeah, I forgot about that lol.
12:05 Dude, I never meet a guy so honest.
You probably have, and then some, lol, but I try :)
Great video. I liked the sheet for contrast, definitely helped. I have a small orchard (eight trees) I planted three years ago with apple, pear, cherry, and plum. I tried your notching technique last year and this year and have had mostly success. I would also be interested to see a video about how you deal with pests and disease.
There are a lot of factors involved if you have trees that are not one year trees. The other thing that matters is how well the tree is growing. If the tree doesn't have enough vigor, it may push fewer of the buds. I do very little about pests and disease. I basically never spray anything. Disease pressure is worsening here. we now have fireblight, or blossom blight at least and scab has gotten a good foothold.
Compost tea and sea salt sprays can help
Vermont grows apples, if you decide to move to the East side of the country. :-) I just got a place with a dozen poorly maintained apple trees, hoping to bring them all back and your videos are amazing help.
Tell him to bring cuttings and seeds. Is Vermont still paying people to move their?
This information is priceless ❤️
yeah, literally :)
hey Steven, just rewatching this video 2 years later and I've realised it has totally formed my view on pruning. I don't even grow fruit, I'm talking entirely about bonsai and houseplants. I came back here because I was searching for this "notching" technique, something that apparently got stuck in my head. Anyway, thanks and keep it up. I'd love to see more pruning and training videos if you've got the thoughts to share.
nice. I've said what I have to say for now. I could maybe refine and reword some stuff, but it's all out there. Next I have to do larger scale trials to test some ideas and use methods on a variety of species. I can't do tht til I get a new piece of land, so we'll see. I think I can have pretty usable results within 5 years if I can get the trials in the ground and manage them and collect the data well enough.
Making apple trees great again
So........ I absolutely love your videos. Great info. I even learned something new. Seeing as we just put 100 different varieties of fruit trees in the ground there's a lot of work to do. I will be implementing this into my little orchard. If your ever in Arizona come on by we can have a grafting party.
Awesome. I hope you benefit from these techniques :)
Your RUclips training improved your teaching for sure. You did great. Extremely useful video. Thanks!
Thanks, I'm just getting less lazy too. I spent more time scripting out what I wanted to say and making sure I could do it concisely. It takes a lot more time than just turning on a camera and talking. I know my subjects, but it's another thing to deliver rapid fire info coherently in the right order.
@@SkillCult And a huge thank you for that! So many youtube videos have way too much rambling on and on about irrelevant bs. You are very concise and to the point. And no annoying music!!! Thank you!!
Thanks so much for this. I’m about to prune a peach tree that I transplanted last year from another site. I can’t really tell what the previous owners were intending as far as training, if anything. It has a lot of branches shooting out from all over, so I think I will have a lot to pick from.
You can probably just take off everything you don't want as a scaffold and leave it to grow. That should drive growth into what is left. Peaches are usually very vigorous. If a branch seems weak, maybe try notching above it.
@@SkillCult Thanks for the response!
Man, I hope you manage to sort out the land ownership issue.. It sucks big time to have so much time, money and knowledge invested into land and then you have to move out.. Best of luck on that and let us know if we can do anything in that regard.
15 years of plans, work and observations. I just need to make a lot of money somehow. I'm not sure that will make all the difference in this situation yet but if not, I'll need it to get land. I also want to hire an orchard and garden manager. Otherwise the stuff I want to do along those lines will never happen. It's way too much for me to keep track of and make happen with youtube, blogging, writing, homestead activities and other research projects. I think I'm just going to see if I can create some significant income streams online that are basically passive, like books and stuff. The more I can come up with my own funding, the less I have to answer to anyone for what I do and how I do it. My methodology is always some weird blend of logic and intuition that any funding institution just wouldn't get. I'm sure there will be things people can help with at least by way of exposure. Otherwise, Patreon and donations and anything that keeps the channel growing.
"Replace the recommendations that failed me so well." Love that line.
I've incorporated your ideas into my fruit tree trainings. Your videos have given me the confidence to try things that I never would have. I have time, I have patience and I have the "blank canvases" to play with.
Thanks for the advice.
Could you post a link to that old study?
It should be on google books and archive.org, just type in the title or key words. It's not hard to find. I hate reading scientific papers, but this was really fascinating, old school stuff.
Great video. Well done.
This video is great! I remember the video where you broke that branch and it's nice to see how the steps you took in that video have progressed here. Great work, great advice!
Yeah, i pretty much knew that would heal up fine. I didn't look close at it when I broke it and still haven't lol.
I truly hope you don’t have to leave your land if you don’t want to.
Oh, God bless You! You make a great job for the humanity revivjng this old real-based-knowledge study.
Даже человеку с небольшими знаниями английского всё понятно! Очень наглядно! Спасибо Вам! )
I dream of the day I can start thinking about training my 3 apple experiments. Winters are rough and they have expirenced lots of die back, so they are all suckered bushes. I like your reasoning with every cut.
This is great info. I have started planting a bunch of trees on my acre and I'm going to try this method with my heavy fruit trees (peach, plums, apples, nectarines, apricots, pears). Should I wait until they're dormant to prune?
You can wait til the buds are getting close to breaking. It's good to do it before they actually start pushing though. So maybe March, depending on where you are.
My apples are starting their second year on this property (some had been growing for a year elsewhere). I'm hoping the growth will be more robust this year now that they've had a chance to establish roots. Also added some lime since my calcium and pH were both very low. Hoping to get enough height that I can start using your method to start establishing scaffold branches. The lowest will have to start at 5 feet or so since the deer here are obnoxious.
Very interesting concepts! I look forward to seeing the end product.
That's going to be a while. I can't really put it out in any official form until there is more to back up application to more species. That may eventually involve a lot of citizens running experiments and reporting. I think that would be a really useful approach. It doesn't account for a lot of variables, but it does account for a lot of variables at the same time since there will be tons of them and if it seems to usually work anyway, that would say a lot!
Forty years growing learn every day!! Soil is big factor and water. Often omitted!!
Thanks for the helpful video. I’ll be trying this on my trees
Thank you again for the amazing videos of this great system! I have been so anxious about pruning in the past, now I am excited about it!
Training can be really confusing, but it's not that complicated. The information out there just isn't that good.
This weekend I did my dormant pruning for second year trees. I incorporated the notching technique you demonstrated in this and other videos...can't wait to see how it turns out. Thanks.
Hope it works out for you.
Please make a video for this year also.
Love the modified central leader concept...watched several of your videos and ready to go next spring!
You are truly a tree whisperer!
Great video. I wish I had seen this last year but it's pruning season again now so I will see if I can at least incorporate some of these ideas into my pruning this year. I also love the idea of grafting multiple varieties onto the same tree. I was thinking about adding more varieties and this is the perfect solution. Thank you.
I hope your position on the homestead isn't sketchy anymore and you'll be there for many many years to come.
It's always sketchy for one reason or another.
I'm *very* appreciative of this whole series. Thank you for taking the time! So many of the hundreds of other articles and videos on this topic are woefully incomplete, confusing, contradictory... and sometimes all three at once.
And a lot of the "conventional wisdom" just never made any sense to me. Your approach has really helped me pull it all together as I begin my first forays into fruit tree growing. I'm now far more confident that I won't just ruin a bunch of perfectly good trees.
I will be sure to credit you whenever the subject comes up and point people towards your channel. Thanks again.
Annnnd now I'm off to search for a PDF of that study from the 20s. 🙂
It's pretty sad what is out there.
@@SkillCult It's apparent to me that a great many of the blogs, articles and videos are simply copied from another half-vast blog article or video LOL. Thanks for explaining why you do what you do - I can see that each step has been thought through. Having that kind of logical process to start from helps me understand the concepts and why to do something (or not do it). Rather than just blindly following a "recipe."
I'm so happy I came across your method of training fruit trees. Super valuable information! I hope everything works out good for you! :)
Super glad I found this channel. Thank you!
Do you have a video that explains how to start training a tree that is already a couple years old and hasn't been trained yet?
this talks about it some. It is more dicey and complicated, but same basic principals. remove competing branches and notch above branches or buds that you want to grow more. ruclips.net/video/FJwxD17ywGM/видео.html
The three scions I bought from you (William's Pride) are far more vigorous than any other grafts I made this year. I hope next year to be able to graft Bite Me. The three attempts with south pole magnetic grafting have died.
WP is pretty good grower. BITE ME! is even more vigorous. should have lots of scions this winter.
This is really helpful! I also tried notching a few weeks ago and now have several branches coming out :) one question for you - why do we avoid branches lower down on a tree (I’ve heard
One is just maintenance. For very large trees, it's nice to be able to get under them and get to the trunk. Some animals have easier access to the fruit. Diseases that thrive in damper conditions or that have spores on the ground might affect very low branches more. For more dwarf types it is less of an issue. It also depends on the way it's trained.
I just ordered the book!
Have you done a more recent update on training this tree? You said you were going to graft new varieties on to it, so I don't know if there would be more to show after this. It would be nice to show training secondary scaffolding, and what comes next after secondary scaffolding.
No. It hasn't grown much, because I stopped taking care of it. Last year a bear got into it, but didn't break it. It's just a matter of time though. Since i have to leave this place anyway, I don't really care to put effort into it. It will just get torn apart by bears. As the scaffolds get longer, just notch a bud growing to the side about every 24 inches on each side. That will usually give you enough well spaced secondaries. After than, just think of filling that round space, without overcrowding it. there's lots of leeway.
man if that hit me like a gut punch I can only imagine what you are going through. I dont know what to say that is going to be of any useful help other than your knowledge is your strength. Im really at a loss. I sincerely hope this works out in your favour.
I don't really worry about things anymore. If I did, I'd be dead, there's too much to worry about lol. I pretty much expect things to not go well.
Super nice tree form, the dang tree I have the buds aren’t going the right way. I’d like to have four scaffolds just like this all going in different directions and with that much space between them
remember you are trying to fill space, so if it comes out and then curves off to fill the space that is okay too. I've also actually twisted the trunk between branches to get a branch to point in the right direction, held with heavy bent wire until it grows a season, then it will stay. get creative :)
@@SkillCult thanks I ended up topping it from 10ft leader to 6ft. Got it from nursery. How much space would you recommend between scaffolds? I think I have 2-3 year old tree maybe four (persimmon), debating on whether to leave the 8 scaffolds that are growing or cut them down to 3-5? Only thing is I don’t like the directions of the branches which is why I’m hesitant to chop them. But then want to chop a few off to encourage growth and start making the structure scaffolds. Decisions. The tree in this vid has the perfect form.
Really nice tree form
I'm living in MN ( zone 4 B ). I got some Asian pear trees. I watched a lot of clips about pruning .
I'm confusing about that.
What's different between summer pruning and winter pruning ? which one for more fruit and which one for shape
?
Asian pear do they need a central leader or open center ?
Summer pruning is used to encourage fruit and to size control and let light in the tree. Winter pruning is convenient and can encourage growth. More fruit wood is not always the goal. You might be able to do open center, but iI would go for central, or modified central, especially if the tree is vigorous.
Your videos are fantastic! From you I learned that last year I bought an uncommon style of apple tree - a one year whip, in a pot. It's dwarf tree that is supposed to grow to a 5ft x 5ft size.
Should I still train it to 3 or 4 scaffolds with top 'fingers'? Right now it has fruiting buds and some skinny branches up and down the entire trunk, above the graft. Honestly I'm too scared to do anything!
Many thanks if you are able to respond.
You can if you want, but if it's really only a 5 foot dwarf, I don't think you need to worry too much about training. Just space the branches a little and don't leave it too crowded.
Nice
Hey - isn't the tree too young to be pruned so drastically? Wouldn't it be better to wait until it was more established, so it had more root systems to provide nutrients? Cheers from Denmark
I have an apple tree, its....80 mm (3-4 inch) tall... so its a few years before i need this video :)
If you take care of it this year, it might be ready next year. Often you can only get 2 to 3 scaffold branches in one year and have to do the rest the next. It depends on how high you want the branches too. These are very high. I usually branch them off much lower.
Thanks for sharing 👍
1) For those watching who have not yet tried it: This stuff works. You don’t have to be a horticulture genius to pull it off. And if you do screw something up, it can almost always be fixed.
2) Steven, excellent video. I was thinking about how to get lots of people actually doing this sort of training. I’m sure you’ve thought even more about it, so this is just spitballing an idea.
Is it too late to plant trees in your climate? Getting borderline too late in mine. Was thinking if you did a real play by play with a flawed, potted nursery tree...it might encourage a broader audience to give it a go. I know that’s not an ideal place to start, but it would be very representative of what most people have access to.
The tree I planted last year is gonna turn out great.
But in hindsight, I would have opted to cut off ALL the branches, make it like a whip, and then notch the buds exactly where I wanted the scaffolds. I opted to use a couple of what we’re already there....adjusting the crotch angle and such. Seeing the “teacher” make choices like that on a tree might be helpful to the masses.
Are you planning to do a follow-up on this one? I'm curious to see the results of another year's growth!
Maybe. put off dealing with it this spring with that in mind, but it's almost june now.
Also, I set it back a full year by regrafting it, so it's not as good an example as it could be. I will probably start a better series next year, using an apple tree that I'm growing out as a whip this year.
Ok. I need my fruit tree to be small, so I can pick fruit without ladder. The only information I found about this is the backyard orchard culture system with summer pruning for size control.
Can your training system be used for size control as well?
It's a training system, not a pruning system. I would be looking at planting on dwarf stocks. You can size control to an extent by pruning, winter or summer.
An amazing video thank you so much 😊
Frankentree question. Does it matter what season a particular variety ripens? For example, if I graft late season apples to an early season tree, does the host tree supply the proper support to ripen fruit? I've got a bunch of rescue trees that are in pots (meaning they won't really thrive) and want to save the varieties by grafting to my in ground trees.
It doesn't seem to have any significant effect as far as I can tell.
What about peaches and cherries? Open vase still ok for that?
great info! thanks for the sheet. holding classes and consulting could help you out, or doing collaboration videos with other RUclips farmers. You will start to make decent cash off your videos once you hit 100k subs.
I haven't been able to commit to any scheduled teaching for a long time, but it's in the long term plan if things go well from here. Collaborations should start happening this year.
@@SkillCult awesome!!! I would love support you and gain extensive knowledge. Where are you based?
Rooster not to laud, he just just saying I agreee!
What?? What the cluck is that at the beginning? Is that a rooster? It sounds like some kind of rooster/peacock hybrid LOL.
Great video(s). I purchased a couple of apple and peach trees this winter from an online nursery. They arrived as older trees (2 or 3 year old?) but pruned back to 3 or 4 feet. Now, they are flushing out growth much too low for permanent branches. How do I handle this? Let the branches grow until the top gets tall enough to start branching at a preferred height, then prune the low branches off? Or prune the low branches back now to encourage top growth?
So there may be a balance sometimes between increasing stem girth and stoutness of the tree by leaving lots of growth, and getting the tree to grow upward a lot, and just put energy into the side wood that is going to be permanent. My personal inclination is to usually go more for the structure rather than let a lot grow, even if it turns out a little skinny and wispy the first couple years. it usually doesn't actually and if it does, you can always use temporary staking if you have to. With a tree like that, I will usually leave just the top and any branches that I might use as scaffolds. pick one for a leader if there is not already a leader. You can tie a stake to the tree and tie the new leader to it to be sure it goes up. Cut any remaining scaffold branches back to 8 inches or so just so they don't become too dominant before you pick the other scaffold branches or buds to grow them next year.
@@SkillCult Thanks for the reply. So if I understand you correctly, you would suggest continuing to prune/de-bud the lower areas and as they form this spring/summer instead of waiting until next year when (hopefully) taller growth appears.
@@claywhitenack If you want a tall tree, you need to make something go tall this year. If there are established branches you don't want down low on the tree, take them off at the trunk.. I would take off at least some of the new lower growth, and probably all of it to drive growth upward into your leader.
Remember! Deer aren’t permitted to eat trees! Best bearing surface close soil not counting ease of harvest!! Deer in West Virginia turn forest into tulip popular plantations!! Dear eat oak sprouts and seedlings! Riffle is answer!
Should we be careful about not having "Y" fork at the top like the one you had at 10:48? Thanks for you contribution.
I want it to branch a the top, but the angle should be wide so that it will not trap bark in between. The top will eventually have about 3 branches usually.
@@SkillCult I am curious about what could be the suckering habits of such modified central leader model compared to a pyramid shape. Does it requires lots of pruning after they start bearing fruits? Did you noticed the 3-4 scaffolds sucker a lot?
@@philipperathe I have never heard anyone complain about that, but it seems possible. Here it is not a problem but growth is not vigorous in our climate. Usually it would not be a big deal to take off some verticals when doing the rest of the puning, unless it was really extreme or not maintained yearly.
@@SkillCult Ok thanks. It is very exciting to look at my buds right now having this framework in mind. I really appreciate you did it all live.
The extendable pruner being so light weight appealed to me. You mentioned it was about $130 and might be available on Amazon and other sites. What is the name of the pruner and who makes them? I have some redbuds in front of my house that need to be trimmed away from my clay tile roof. Thanks for any information you could provide.
There is a link in the video description. They make a lot of different models. I would get the long one that I have. I think it's 10 feet?
Any books you recommend on beginning growing apple trees? I enjoy your videos a lot and want to get some trees in the ground next spring.
no, I really don't read books on that stuff much. There is one called something like the organic apple grower, but it is more for commercial growers I think.
What happens if you just always cut the top? Can you "dwarf" the tree from the top, rather than from the root stock?
You can do that. It is easier if the tree is bearing a lot and the conditions are not conducive to excessive growth.
I have a few different trees that grow in a v shape. Usually one of the two branches is much stronger. I want to have single stemmed trees. If I cut, the tree will be lop sided, What should I do ?
Sorry for what may seem a stupid question but what percentage of growth happens in vertical height along the main trunk of the tree in between your scaffolds. Thus, if this is high do you need to choose the position of your scaffold side branches thinking what height above the ground they will eventually end up at given the central trunk will grow vertically too. How do different rootstocks effect this vertical growth?
Tree do not grow significantly upward like that as far as I've ever seen. Once the wood is extended it stays there and grows outward.
What do you do against aphids in the growing tips?
Usually nothing, but you can use soapy water, or tobacco water with a little soap. It's hard to get in under the curled leaves though. If it's not important, I just pinch off the infested area and drop it in the sun to dry out.
What size rootstock is this?
it's so old I can't remember. I planted it close to 15 years ago and it just sat there struggling to grow the graft, but never did. but it's full size I'm sure. probably old home x.
I have not been getting notifications. This is the first one in two months.
Do you have the bell clicked? I post most videos to my blog, facebook and instagram too. If you are just relying on google to surface it on your home page because you are subbed, that wont' work. subs don't mean all that much. It's all about the bell, but I've heard people say that doesn't always work.
Yes the bell is marked. Best wishes to you. In a normal world you would be highly valued asset but our world is upside down.
How do I order red fleshed apple and pear scions from you. That will grow in the cold climate of Alaska (-20F)?
I don't think I have any. But there are people working on breeding them, so hopefully in the future. but I will have some cold hardy apple seed and some might be crossed to RF varieties if you want to participate in that effort. They are trailman crosses. Best follow my instagram or sub to my blog for when those will be available.
Any update on this tree?
It really hasn't grown a lot, because I stopped watering and feeding it. it's in a really bad spot, so without extra care, it's just not going to grow much.
@@SkillCult it would be great to see an update on the tree if it's still living and maybe pair it with some footage of other trees that were more successful using the same pruning methods that you could talk about what was done on those particular trees.
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge! We planted about 10 fruit trees last year so I am really enjoying your videos.
Dosent mention soil!! Soil prep prior to planting!!! Increase organic content
It's not about soil, it's about training trees. A lot of people, me included, don't prepare soil for planting trees ahead of time. Hard to amend a lot of soil and the tree roots will eventually grow out into the native, unamended soil.
Well it seems hormonal imbalance and stupidity has seeped into my orchard.
Bad capitalists are good, actually.