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Help! Husband topped our apple tree

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Posts

  • Loraine3Loraine3 Posts: 579
    Saw this on Facebook and thought of your apple tree!



    May be a cartoon of text that says Before you start talking woman remember when I need your opinion I ask
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    Yes as others have said, it's likely to grow a mass of weak thin shoots.  Remember it will have an extensive root system and it will try to rebalance itself by growing a canopy to match.  The old adage is that growth follows the knife.  In fact hard winter pruning tends to stimulate growth,  they are referred to as water shoots because they grow fast with the rising sap. Late summer pruning restricts growth because the sap is falling in preparation for the winter shut down, so it doesn't respond with such fast growth, the following spring. It will take several seasons to correct this.  
    AB Still learning

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    When you get lots of water shoots as in above photo, don't think, thats OK, its growing back. Do an august prune to reduce all the new shoots to two or three buds. They will then form fruit buds next year. Don't leave undergardeners unsupervised with loppers or pruning saws.
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