The summer pruning as a maintenance measure for the apple tree

The summer pruning as a maintenance measure for the apple tree

The correction of cutting errors from winter

Winter is a very suitable time for pruning apple trees not only because of the sap dormancy. Without leaves, the branches and twigs can also be clearly seen, so that the tree canopy can be visually recognized. However, wrong decisions from winter pruning sometimes only show up in early summer, which can then be corrected with summer pruning. Signs of diseases such as powdery mildew should also be answered with immediate cutting measures in summer. In summer, even dry twigs in the treetop can be recognized better than in winter and easily removed.

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Direct the growth energy into the fruits

With a strong winter pruning, there is sometimes a strong stimulus from new shoots on an apple tree. This becomes evident at the latest in early summer, when sometimes hundreds of water shoots shoot into the sky at the top of the treetop. However, this costs the tree a lot of strength, which it would also need for the fruiting. If these water shoots are not needed as noble twigs for copulating in the following winter, they should be removed as soon as possible in summer. At the same time, the pruning of the water shoots again encourages new buds and shoots for next spring.

Use the summer cut for grooming

If possible, you should also use the ladder on the apple tree for the summer pruning for other maintenance measures. In general, you should be careful not to carry out the summer pruning when it is too hot and dry, and you should water the tree afterwards. During the summer pruning, look for areas that are too dense in the treetop and inward-facing branches and remove them. In addition, fruit mummies resulting from fungal diseases can now be removed without much additional effort.

Tips & Tricks

During the summer pruning, you should also check the fruit stock on the tree. If there are a lot of fruits on the tree in a year, you can encourage the ripening of the remaining fruits by thinning them or support weak branches with a wooden support.