Pruning Apple Trees

[gjbingham]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

My favorite deer story is that you don't have to build a fence that is so high the deer cannot jump over it; you just have to build a fence higher than your neighbor -- so they eat his garden.

James

That's a good thought. Those buggers can jump, huh? I always find half eaten apples below my trees. I have no idea how they get at them. They must fly up eight or more feet and help themselves.

[Acoma]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

Deer meat taste good too

[gjbingham]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

Yep! Venison is good! The owner of Brainbridge Island Vineyards (WA) took out one of his vineyard's offenders with a shotgun. I think it made it's way to the table.

Robins are the big problems with grapes around here. One of the other local growers near Seattle served robin pie to his fellow vintners without telling them what they were eating. Most were less than happy, but it makes for a great story.

G.

[Frances]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

Sigh... I tried pruning my trees yesterday, too. It usually goes something like this:

Re-read pruning book, memorise most importat elemnts, go out into the garden armed with twig cutting tool thingy and lots of enthousiasm, cut randomly at various twigs which all look completely different from what's in the book, getting more and more confused all the while, give finally up in disgust - repeat whenever necessary.

Maybe this is a job I really should get someone else to do...

[carioca]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

Further to earlier:
Bianca says she prunes during the season when the tree is dormant, except for the 'watershoots' that spring up vertically from existing branches - these can be taken out any time. If the trees are young, prune back to three or four good branches in different directions at different levels. I think she learned her pruning from an old Sunset Magazines book on the subject dating back to the 'Seventies.

Since we hardly get any fruit to ripen this year due to a mass migration of predators from neighbouring 'developments', she picks the up the unripe apples, pears, nashis etc. discarded by possums, Noisy Friarbirds, currawongs and the like and makes a quick stew that gets put into some early-settlers type of baked dish, similar to our European apple strudel. Tastes quite nice, too...

I'm thinking of applying for a shotgun permit :-)... (Haven't even begun to complain about the figbirds and magpies that are decimating a white and a black genoa figtrees in full daylight.) But with apples now costing $A6 to $A7 a kilo in the shops, I must find a way to beat the predators!

About the only fruit that's safe at the moment are oranges, lemons and limes - which is as well with limes costing $A1 each in the supermarket - and they are a third of the size of my Tahitians!

Cheers,

LMH

PS: I forgot the aptly-named butcher birds :-)

[gjbingham]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

Thanks to your wife Carioca. That seems to be what Fraces and I have found in our readings too. Once you get out there amongst all the braches, sometimes it just becomes a hack-fest. It was a much easier job this year after hitting them hard last January.

G.

[Acoma]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

LMH, figs are such a delicious fruit. It is too bad those and citrus fruits don't grow in higher climates like ours, unless we had a very large green house.

Isn't there a known method that drives the birds away?

[carioca]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

Yes mate, bird netting helps a lot! But I've expended all my available netting on a Williams pear tree for the moment...

However, as the 'poet & inventor' I've long professed to be, I have a new idea that I'm working on (mentally, the oven has precedence!).

Cheers,

LMH

NB: regarding fence heights - in the first few years out here, we had a 12-strand, 1.8 m (6ft) solar-powered electric fence around the orchard to keep out 'high-jump' champion wallabies (a type of kangaroo). However, we found that these lovely creatures prefer to dive through the fence rather than jump over it, so we reduced the whole thing to 8 strands of wire (4 pulsed, 4 earth returns).

Yet, they still come in (see Picasa Web Albums - carioca - Clod Nine, although while there's plenty of good grass, they leve the young fruit trees alone...

[gjbingham]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

Rob,
Shotguns and dogs do wonders with birds. There's electonic gadgets that balst bird distress sounds that are supposed to work, but like everything else, the animals get used to them over time, and just come back.

Carioca,
Great photo album. Looks like you live a great life. What's a few wallabies thrown into the mix. As long as they (and the birds) leave the pears alone. Someday, I'll make it to Oz....

[carioca]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

If you do, George (edited to address the right person this time!), you must bring a tent - or sleep in the shed. Unlike the oven, the 'house' I built is only 1/4 finished (and I'm using the term loosely...)

Cheers,

LMH

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Pruning Apple Trees

Hey, don't forget to keep your apple wood prunings for use on your BBQ or in your wood fired oven....

Nice green apple wood smokes well or just wet down the old cuttings for nice applewood flavor!

I have put them on the charcoal and it provides a nice smoky kick.