Studies with Mcintosh 



This study ivas initiated on 8-year-old Mcintosh trees on 

 seedling roots planted at the Horticultural Research Center in 

 Belchertown. The pruning treatments were: 1) check (no piun- 

 ing) , 2) dormant type pruning in early August, 3) mechanical 

 hedging (simulated) in early August, 4) cutting terminal branches 

 back to the first fruit in early August, 5) removing in early 

 August water sprouts and removing or stubbing limbs in the upper 

 third of the tree that shaded the lower two-thirds of the tree, 

 6) cutting all current season's shoots to 4-6 buds in early July 

 and 7) cutting all current season's shoots to 4-6 buds in early 

 August . 



All pruning treatments consistently increased red color with 

 the exception of treatments 6 and 7, otherwise there has been 

 little response to summer pruning (Table 3). 



Table 3. Effects of summer pruning on growth, and quality of 

 Mcintosh apples. 



Parameter 



1978 



Responses 



1979 



1980 



Growth 



Trunk circ. incr. 



No effect 



Decreased 



No effect 



Fruit quality at harvest * 

 Fruit size 

 Flesh firmness 

 Soluble solids 

 Red color 

 Flesh calcium 



No effect 

 No effect 

 No effect 

 Increase 

 No effect 



No effect 

 No effect 

 No effect 

 Increase 

 No effect 



No effect 

 No effect 

 No effect 

 Increase 

 No effect 



Fruit quality after storage 

 Flesh firmness 

 Breakdown 

 Brown core 

 Internal browning 



No effect 

 No effect 

 No effect 

 No effect 



No effect 

 No effect 

 No effect 

 No effect 



No effect 

 No effect 

 No effect 

 No effect 



Summary and Discussion 



The corrective winter pruning or corrective winter pruning- 

 plus-summer pruning procedures reduced the problem of tree crowd- 

 ing in the block of Red Prince Delicious trees. Hov,fever , corrective 

 winter pruning-plus- summer pruning in comparison to corrective winter 

 pruning had little or no effect on growth or fruit quality (Table 1) . 



To determine the effects of summer pruning on fruit quality, the fruits were 

 sampled near the pruning cuts . 



