Repairing apple trees?

[mktest]

I have some apple trees, that has suffered a bit from sloppy pruning. So far they don't seem to have suffered very much from the pruning, more from elks and frost. I wonder if I should try to "fix" these all wounds though, as I'm a bit worried the stubs might lead to big problems in the future?
I've heard that once a damage is "old" it's better to leave the tree to handle it by itself. Never open old wounds and the such.

But I include some pictures to show what I mean. Taken with my mobile phone camera so the quality isn't the best. All trees are nearly 30 years old. I want to keep the trees, and I can't afford professionals to do the job I get more than enough apples, I just want these trees to be as healthy as possible. I don't trim for getting "easy to pick" fruit. In fact, I'd prefer tall trees that elks (moose) can't get into And they can reach high.

First we have a Lobo apple tree. It suffers from Venturia inaequalis (Scab?) which I believe is quite common for this variety. To counter-attack this Scab, the tree has been trimmed, pruned and a bit dismembered. (to get better air flow through the tree I guess). This has resulted in some stubs, and I wonder if I can cut closer to the branch collar. Other than the scab, the tree gives many apples of good size. I'd be happy to have fewer apples and a healthy tree. This stub is 2.5" thick.

Then we have a Cox's Orange. Severely damaged by frost in its early years, and then ravaged by hares, elks and roe-deer, it has a few problems with the bark. It nearly didn't grow for the first 15 years. In the last 5-7 years or so it has grown and given lots of apples of good quality. I wonder if I can somehow help the tree repair this bark damage quicker, or if I should just leave it be? Also, same as with the Lobo, I have a few stubs that I wonder if I can remove. The stub in this case is about 1 inch across, it's quite tiny.

 

[mktest]

Finally, an Ingrid Marie/Sävstaholm-apple tree, grafted onto an apple tree of unknown origin. Probably from seed from apple thrown from a car This is a tree that has never had any problems with frost or anything, has given good apples for most of its life. So naturally I love this tree, and want to give it the best possible care. But again, some stumps that I wonder if I should remove. This stub is 2" across.

Again, I'm sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. But from what I can see the bark hasn't been able to repair these injuries which I estimate to about 5 years old. The branch collars all look healthy though.

Might as well throw in some pictures of a 30 year Purple Beech (fagus sylvatica 'purpurea'), the lower cut is healing I reckon, I don't know how much more I dare trim the upper cut. It doesn't look very nice IMHO. It's oval, 3" x 2" perhaps. I have more questions on this beech, but that will be a long post all on its own

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

There are those who will disagree with me, but stubs are no big deal. They are mostly a cosmetic problem, and at worst in extreme cases, can make for a slightly easier entry point for wood decay fungus than a proper pruning cut. On the other hand, cuts that are too flush to the trunk, are very bad because they inhibit the walling off process (CODIT) and causes extensive decay.
On old stubs, I look to see where the living tissue is and cut just beyond that, so only dead wood is cut off. On new stubs, I'd make proper pruning cuts at the collar.
Some cuts, like the beech limb that is growing into the stem at an angle, it's nearly impossible to cut at the collar because the back side is buried in the stem. You'd need to take a chisel or some special tool to remove the whole limb to the collar. Just do the best you can without hitting the trunk, the rest will rot away in time. A healthy young tree will have no problem walling off the advancement of decay from a small cut like this.

Apple trees will either have a huge crop of small apples, a small crop of huge apples, or somewhere in between. How heavily you trim the tree will determine the crop. That's one reason orchards trim so hard, they want big salable apples.
Good sanitation and thinning the tree will help some with Scab, but if Sweden is like Wisconsin, there are apple trees all over and they all have at least some scab, so the fungal spores are everywhere. You're going to have Scab.

 

[mktest]

Thanks for your advice, especially the part about using a chisel. I feel a bit less worried about the stubs now

If I am to (carefully) do some tree surgery, what time of year would be best? I guess it must depend on the tree, maybe apples and beech should be cut different time of the year? Would apple-trees have trouble healing itself during the fruit-season, because so much energy go into fruits?

And yeah, guess I have to live with the scab on some trees, the Melba and Lobo I have are seems to have gotten worse over the years though Whereas the Transparente Blanche (Yellow Transparent?) and Cox's Orange were nearly free from scab last year.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

I think you are always safe doing prunning during the dormant season for a number of reasons, one of which is that it's easy to see the structure and the branches are lighter without leaves .
There also aren't insects to vector disease and fungal fruiting is at a minumum (at least in colder climates).

 

[treeseer]

On old stubs, I look to see where the living tissue is and cut just beyond that, so only dead wood is cut off. On new stubs, I'd make proper pruning cuts at the collar.

Mike's right on this; I would clean up those stubs back to a thick wrinkle. I use a chisel pretty often, to get the best cut that will close well.

 

[gumneck]

Saving the trees...

If you treasure the fruit from these trees as much as the trees themselves, than you should begin learning the grafting process if you dont already know. Its not difficult just takes practice and good aftercare. That way when its time for the tree to die, you'll be ready with a new tree with identical fruit characteristics.
I've saved a few trees my greatgrandfather had on his farm this way. These were seedlings he planted and he kept the trees with the best fruit. They may be there own variety. I guess its possible the only variety like it anywhere.

 

[mktest]

I've saved a few trees my greatgrandfather had on his farm this way. These were seedlings he planted and he kept the trees with the best fruit. They may be there own variety. I guess its possible the only variety like it anywhere.

Oh, that's really cool unique apples, I'd want that. You should name them after your greatgrandfather or the farm and spread them

We use seedlings for grafting onto, they seem the best. My granddad knew how to graft well, the IngridMarie/Sävstaholm is a tree my granddad found in a field, dug up, and grafted 2 varieties onto

I was actually grafting 2 of my granddads trees on our trees today, Ribston and Oranie varieties. I'm not very experienced at grafting, but, the last couple of years I have been successful with at least some of them. The main problem is protecting them from animals like moose

My greatgrandfather had (the trees still stand) 2 apples I've tried to graft a few times but not succeeded. I'll try again. One is Åkerö, a quite hard apple with a hint of almond in the taste, and the other one we do not know. We have taken it to experts for identifikation, but people at the university even can't ID it. It's probably not a seedling, more likely a variety that people haven't seen any use to keep, and have forgotten about. They taste great, are juicy and fresh, but only for a few days. Then they go soft and brown. Impossible to use commercially I guess, and you can't store them. My granddad grafted this onto another tree, so we at least have two of them, in case the old tree goes down in a storm (its' probably from the mid 1800s, it was huge and old in the 1920s my granddad said)