kay Smith wrote:
Nicole Alderman wrote:
I love that this tree has never been pruned, either by deer or me, and I very much would love to keep it that way.
lovely idea to plant a tree on the one-year birthday of your child. It's one of those things that you wish you had thought of when your own was little.
I've been lurking for a couple weeks haven't posted until now. we grow a few pear trees. I noticed what you said about not pruning the tree and I didn't know if that was because it is how it would grow in nature or if there was some other reason behind it. I would really like to know the reasoning behind that if you don't mind sharing.
I just realized I never answered your question! I didn't want to prune this tree too much:
(1) Because I like the natural shape of trees better, and really wanted to see what a standard, natural apple tree would look like,
(2) Lot's of pruning can shorten the life of the tree, and generally needs to be kept up. I wanted this tree to do well without much maintenance.
(3) I wanted my son--and maybe his kids if he has them--to be able to climb the tree
Here's a bit of an update on the apple tree! It finally fruited, and man it made a lot of apples! We spent today thinning it (I found it fascinating how their branches naturally grew out of the tree with nice "crotches" but then shot up. And, now that they are laden with fruit, they've bent down nicely!). It had a lot of apples! And, they were almost all on the mid-high branches. There were often apples every few inches along it. It was laden!