Sunday, April 14, 2013

Splitting Wood & Pruning Apple Trees

Justin Scott Delivering Wood
Tom's crew had a busy weekend splitting wood and pruning apple trees. The guys split 6 chords of wood to feed the furnaces that heat our 3 greenhouses. Depending on the weather and temperatures set in the greenhouses (2 are set at 60 degrees, one is set at 65  degrees), this much wood should fuel the fire for 2 or 3 weeks.

Usually Tom saves the apple tree pruning project for summer but we didn't prune all of the apple trees last year and those that weren't pruned need pruning now. Here are a few tips from Tom on pruning apple trees:


How many can you fit in a 4240?
  • Do not start pruning new apple trees until the branches are as thick as your thumb (a fat thumb)
  • Pruning in the spring promotes tree growth  
  • Pruning in the summer helps control the size of the tree and provides you with a good estimate of how many apples you will harvest in the fall
  • Trim the trees to a central leader, leave 3 branches on the bottom, 3 branches in the middle, and one branch in the top center 
  • Clip enough branches so that sun shines through the tree


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