Fig. 19. Mcintosh on M.9 after 3 growing seasons in the 

 orchard. The central leader should be headed to a 

 competitive lateral. Repeated replacement of the 

 central leader by a weaker competitive lateral 

 should weaken the growth in the upper part of the 

 tree. Fig. 20 shows the same tree after pruning. 



a 1 -year-old shoot. Cutting back to a 1 -year-old shoot 

 should be done only when the shoot is weak and wide 

 angled, otherwise the growth of the top may become 

 too vigorous. 



2. Strong growing branches 1 -year-old and older toward 

 the top of the tree should be selectively pruned. This 

 is necessary if vegetative growth and fruit quality in 

 the lower parts of the tree are to be maintained. 



3. At this time, it may be necessary to remove some 

 branches at the base of the leader, depending upon 

 its vigor, because loss of the dominance of the central 

 leader is possible if a balance is not maintained. 



4. Continue to maintain the conical tree form. 



Pruning fifth year and thereafter. 



^ . Pruning will be similar to the fourth year. 



Fig. 20. The same tree as in Fig. 19 after pruning. 



2. Do branch renewal by complete removal of excess 

 branches. Leave a short stub when removing the 

 branch since this encourages the growth of a replace- 

 ment branch. However, branch replacement may be 

 more successful on the upper portion of the leader 

 than on its basal portion. 



3. Maintain a conical tree form. 



4. On weak growing varieties like Golden Delicious, thin 

 wood pruning is necessary to attain fruit size. Cortland, 

 which bears much fruit terminally, will require numer- 

 ous small cuts to remove the excess of twiggy growth 

 which develops toward the outside of the tree. On 

 Mcintosh and Delicious, it will be necessary to prune 

 much vigorous wood growing above a horizontal posi- 

 tion. However, whenever possible, remove just the 

 drooping wood because undesirable upright growth 

 will develop. 



Pruning high density orchards on trellis. Trellises for sup- 

 porting apple trees differ throughout the world as does 

 training methods employed for trellised-trees. We described 



27 



