Apple trees and polesaw?

[Cut4fun]

Wife said she would like to look into using a gas polesaw for trimming the apple tree tops. That way she dont have to use a ladder and lop cutters. Do you think that we would get a clean cut with a polesaw trimming up high limbs on apple trees. Seems like it might not be a clean cut to me. Any ideas?

 

[treeseer]

If you have 1000 apple trees to prune, that may make sense. I took a course on fruit tree mgt a while ago and went nuts seeing the random internodal cuts made, but finally learned that with apple trees it does not matter so much as with oaks.

If you only have a couple dozen then why not do em right with ladder and telescoping loppers?

 

[PTS]

I wouldn't!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gas powered pole saws have there place but it isn't in pruning especially smaller trees like apple. You can purchase for a lot less money an extend able hand pole saw. These saws can reach up to 20 some feet. I think ours from Stihl is mid 20's. Cost is less then $300 and they are sharp as razors and can cut a 3 inch diameter in just a few pulls. Plus it is a much neater cut leaner and you don't have to worry as much about touching up against another limb as the cutting edge is only on the one side where a gas pole saw cuts both top and bottom. I had one of my guys make this mistake where he was pruning with one (NEWBIE) and I didn't see him right away and was concentrating on his bottom cut and touched the top up against another limb and gouged it. Definitely use a hand run pole saw. Silky makes them too.

 

[PTS]

I should add. Like anything you get what you pay for. If you can buy it in the local farm store it probably isn't worth the money. Check out these links:

http://www.silkysaws.com/hayate.htm


I really like these for small tree prunes:

http://www.stihlusa.com/handtools/extended_pruners.html

These are the Pole Pruners we use, The PS 80 has the extending handle just like the Silky and the PS 70 is what we use for climbing hand saws:

http://www.stihlusa.com/handtools/pruning_saws.html

 

[rebelman]

I hear lot's of horror stories about dropping chunks that bounce toward you. And I see bent ones alot. Many are used only once. Also they are responsible for lot's of improper cuts. And I think that's bad in apples. Just some thoughts from the heartwood.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I've seen a few apple orchards that had pruned all of their trees so that no branches were higher than they could reach on a short stepladder. Sort of a flatop cut for trees. The idea was to keep the fruit where it could be harvested quickly and easisly, and also make maintenance easier. No high branches mean no tall ladders needed.

Looked terrible, but seemed to work well for a commercial operation.

 

[Cut4fun]

Today we found something different. A 24 volt rechargeable polesaw with a 5 1/2 inch one sided cutting edge like a reciprocating saw blade. Says it can cut up to 100 3 inch branches on 1 charge. The pole itself extends 10 foot. Has anyone ever tried one of these? Will post a pit if I get one.

 

[Cut4fun]

Found it on the net. Here's a pit of the 24 volt pruner.

 

[PTS]

Personal though on that chargeable one is save your money. I really suggest looking into the pole saws that extend and are hand run. They are awesome, accurate in cutting, allow you to maneuver withing the tree and also keep from damage. We do a lot of apple trees. The best tools we have used are that pole loppers for the small snip it off stuff and the pole pruner or wiggle sticks as we call them for the 1 inch and bigger stuff. If you just try the wiggle sticks you will find that they cut effortlessly. One pull or maybe 2 on most everything in an apple tree unless you are doing a 2-4 inch limb. It is kinda a no brainier.