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Apple tree, advice please.
Mountainranger
Posts: 37
in Plants
Hi
I bought a coxs orange pipin apple tree from a well known shop but it only has one trunk and no branches. How do I encourage it to produce branches?
all the other fruit trees were the same only one stem and no branches.
Thanks
0
Posts
Hi Mountainranger, what you have there is known as a year old 'maiden' tree. Pruning is simple - basically choose a good looking bud about 75cm from the base and prune the top off just above this bud. This will promote branches to develop. See this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DP5ilmk6z8
hi thanks bob you have answered a question I was going to ask about the same tree I got last year thanks Michael
Is there a trick to Coxs Orange Pippin? I've had one in (slightly more mature one) for 4 years and it hardly fruits at all. I have a James Greeves next to it that does much better in terms of yield and it is a younger tree.
This is the badger.... could the green stuff growing on it be doing damage? The garden centre said not, but I'm not so sure.....
Tootles - the 'green stuff' is lichen and will do no harm at all - it is an indicator of clean air
Your tree looks healthy, but it would help to remove some grass from round the trunk to reduce competition and make it easier to feed your tree. Cox's Orange are not the easiest of trees to grow and get to fruit, but yours looks fine, just patience needed I think.
Thanks Buttercupday.
i have been thinking about investing in some 'edging' rings but they seem quite pricey. This one from Everedge is 600mm (2ft) diameter, the smallest the do, and it's over £26 pounds with delivery.
Tootles, I agree with Buttercupdays - ideally remove the grass from a circle about 1m diameter around the trunk. The tree's feeding roots are near the surface and grass is a hungry plant and is competeing with the tree. Cox's is a bit harder to grow then the average fruit tree and really benefits from another apple tree nearby to act as a pollinator. I also hand-pollinate mine, taking a small soft brush from the flowers on one tree to another.
Eeek, so I need to get another tree? I seem to remember info about groups...do the other frees need to be in a certain group?
Three miles, even. So if there are any other apple trees in the vicinity you might be OK - but I'd have another nearby. Apart from anything else, you'd get twice as many apples. This site http://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/pollinationchecker.aspx?v=1086
lists nearly a hundred pollinators!