Best chain for trimming apple trees

[joecool85]

Hey guys, I was helping my dad thin out some branches on his apples trees with my 339 and it did a great job, except that it seems to make a rougher cut than my old Poulan 2375 did. The 339 is running .325 full chisel chain, my old 2375 had been running a semi-chisel low pro 3/8 chain.

What do you guys run for trimming trees? Should I get a low-pro chain for my saw? Or maybe a micro-lite setup with narrow kerf?

 

[Job Corps Tree]

3/8 peco low profile small tooth small cut. You wull find less ripping , less tearing on the bark. If the cut is not too big use a sharp hand saw/ pole saw Razor cut teeth

 

[joecool85]

3/8 peco low profile small tooth small cut. You wull find less ripping , less tearing on the bark. If the cut is not too big use a sharp hand saw/ pole saw Razor cut teeth

Yeah, I was thinking 3/8 low pro would make sense. Now...can I get that on a 339xp?

**edit**
Turns out that I can run .325, 3/8 or even 1/4 if I wanted - all with a spur sprocket setup. However, my saw has a rim setup right now and that is only available for .325. I'll probably run it that way for quite a while then. At least till I need to replace the rim. Then I can go get a bar, chain and spur sprocket setup to do the switch. For now it's fine as 95% of the time I'm using it for limbing trees that will be firewood anyway.

 

[JNGWC&Tree]

I'm curious, how much are you taking off of them this time of year?

 

[joecool85]

One of them had a good deal of cutting due to ants getting into a partially rotten portion of the trunk. Most of the trees got only a light trimming, but there are enough of them that it takes quite a while doing it with a hand saw.

We did the cutting about 3 weeks ago, I was a little worried about cutting during their growth period as I normally would do it in the fall. But the more reading I did the more I heard "cut in the spring", "cut in the summer", "cut in the fall" and even a few "cut in the winter".

So I ended up doing what one man said, "cut when your saw is sharp and you have the time."

 

[mic687]

I trimmed mine with my MS192 with a pico mini narrow chain and my Silky hand saw. That is until the ants got the better of it and then I trimmed it with my MS650 right to the ground

 

[treeseer]

"If the cut is not too big use a sharp hand saw/ pole saw Razor cut teeth"

yes it is an apple tree after all, not worth burning gas over.

Ants never hurt a tree. Pruning too much off just cuz of heartrot and ants is not good for the trees. Trees know how to live with ants; people should too!

 

[Lawnmowerboy48]

If you are going for fruit production March is probably the latest that you would want to do any major pruning. I guess better later than never though.

 

[Junkrunner]

:agree2: I worked/lived on orchards(south central Pa) for the biggest part of my first 24 years. We usually started pruning AFTER deer season. We used LP 3/8 on our trimmin saws. A clean cut will heel faster.