Apple Tree Newbies

[chris_n_dawn]

(they didn't have an icon for confusion....)

Hopefully someone here can help. I cannot stress just how poorly educated on the care of trees my husband and I are. I've read postings on apple trees by people who are "not arborists" and even some of their terminology has me lost. But here's our story:

My husband wanted an apple tree; he'd grown up with several in his yard, which received no care and produced tens of bushels of apples every year--and still do.

5 years ago we bought a hybrid pest-resistant apple tree. Of course, we can't find the descriptive tag that was attached that we'd planned to keep, anywhere. When we planted it, it was less than 5' tall. Its first 2 years it just happily grew, watered lovingly on a regular basis by my husband. The tree had a 6' "no walking/biking/breathing" zone around it.

Last year, the 3 year old tree really shot up, and produced TONS of apples--I thought it was too immature! The brances were so densly packed with apples one branch actually snapped (I weighed them and on that branch alone were over 40 lbs of apples). My husband lashed the branch up and it has survived nicely.

THIS year (its fifth in our yard) the tree has already shot up to over 23' tall, healthy and set to burst out in all its adolescent fruit-producing glory. We didn't know you could thwart apple production by picking the flower buds--we've decided to just thin out the apples as they grow.

My question(s) are these--is this level of growth & apple production normal, or did we get some kind of super-tree? Also, the tree has long, leggy branches and we know it should be pruned but have no idea how or when. I read something about leading lateral branches, etc but it really needs to be in much more "layman's terms" for us to understand it. And the messages I've read here that people have written about the disasters they've had after pruning have made us afraid to try.

Thanks for any help and sorry for such a long message!

 

[Newfie]

Sounds like a great problem to have. There are some guys here who should be able to provide guidance.

My two cents, this is confused,

Good Luck

 

[John Paul McMillin]

does this tree produce apples on short spur branches or on other growth? anyway its hard to tell you how to prune , so look for some books that will guide you through the whole process. what i do is first remove any dead limbs , then remove any crossing or rubbing limbs, then any limbs that are growing inward. i try to create a tree that is somewhat open in the center with nice scaffold limbs growing upward. Is this tree a dwarf or full size apple tree? You seem to know what you are doing by thinning the fruit. Most apple trees get pruned in the winter .JPM