trimming my apple tree

[Pooh]

when and how do i trim back the dead branches on my apple tree? My thoughts are to do it late all and use a hand saw like a bow saw.

[Steve Foss]

If they are dead you can do it any time. Living apple branches are best trimmed back in late winter/early spring.

A bow saw will work just fine, if the branches are too big for a lopper or if a bow saw is all you have. I'd leave about an inch or so of branch sticking out from the trunk. While the branch may be dead, it's possible there is still some living tissue at the base of the branch, and leaving an inch there will allow the tree to heal over the cut in case there's a little life there.

Also, make a shallow cut (about 1/4 of the way through the branch) coming up from the bottom. Then cut down to meet it. If you just cut from the top without first making the undercut, the bark can strip all the way down, even into the trunk, and this encourages disease and insects, not to mention being kind of ugly.

Hope that helps!

[TooTallTom]

I guess it wasn't specifically asked, but some fruit-tree-trimming advice I got (second hand from a forester through a cousin of mine) was to trim like you wanted to throw a football through the tree without hitting any branches.

[Pooh]

TTT-if i trim the tree like that i wont have a tree left as the tree is very wide and not tall at all, maybe 10-12 feet tall and all of that across

[Steve Foss]

Since I thought the OP was about getting rid of dead branches, that's all I addressed.

Trimming apples of dead and live branches in order to get them to look good, promote air movement and produce the most fruit isn't rocket science, but it does take a bit of experience (or a goodly amount of online reference reading), a couple of tools and patience.

[Pooh]

just looking to get rid of dead branchs right now trime to start my fall clean up and that was something i didnt get to last year. Not knowing when to cut the dead stuff off was my biggest worry. I get plenty of apples every other year, nothing huge but lots of em

[TooTallTom]

TTT-if i trim the tree like that i wont have a tree left as the tree is very wide and not tall at all, maybe 10-12 feet tall and all of that across

Well, if you want to speed things up, I can stop by with a chainsaw and just take it down. Heck, I'll even remove the wood for you!

[Powerstroke]

Your advice of having an open middle of the tree is accurate, however that doesn't mean you cut out everything in the middle. What that means is you generally don't want any suckers or small branches in the interior of the tree that come off of the main structure of the tree. You leave the main branches and maintain the overall shape of the tree.

I agree with Steve that if you're trimming a dead branch off you can cut it off anytime. However I think it looks better and the tree heals better if you cut it back to the "branch collar". This is a ring at the base of the branch where it began growing from. Sometimes it is obvious where this ring is because of the shape of the branch. You can google it for pics of what this looks like. It is NOT meant to cut it flush with the side of the tree. Its supposed to follow the angle that the branch was growing at.

And like he said, any trimming of live branches should be done in the dormant season. I've always trimmed them early in the winter with no ill effects.

[Steve Foss]

Andy, I agree with you on trimming to the branch collar. Just didn't go into that level of detail. My bad. With the mature apple trees I've trimmed, the branch collar generally extends an inch or so out.

[Powerstroke]

I know what you mean. Its hard to explain branch collar sometimes and leaving a small stub if more beneficial to the tree than making a flush cut and a larger wound than necessary.