Apple Root-grafts.

I have an old apple orchard and would like to have two or three of the best varieties positively identified, so that I can order these kinds from the nursery for next year’s planting.

Old California apple orchards have many varieties no longer propagated largely.  If you greatly desire to have a few trees of exactly the varieties which you are now growing, you run some risk of mistake in ordering by name, but if you make some root-grafts by taking a piece of the smaller roots of the tree, which you can dig out, say about the size of a pencil, and graft scions upon them, you can secure root-grafts for planting in nursery this year and in that way be sure to have trees of exactly the same kind.  Root-grafts can be made in the winter, placed in sand which is kept moist and not wet, planted out as soon as the ground warms up, and you will get immediate and very satisfactory growth in that way.

Pruning Old Apple Trees.

I have an old orchard containing some apple trees about 40 years old — trees well shaped but with plenty of main branches and limbs all very long.  The trees bear profusely in alternate years but the fruit is small.  In pruning would you advise cutting out some main limbs where there are over three or four and thus making a big wood reduction (where sunburn protection can still be guarded) or would you only shorten in the branches and thin the fruit severely?

Do not remove main branches unless they are clearly too numerous or have been allowed to grow to interference with each other or have become weakened or feeble in some way.  In such cases the space is worth more than the branch.  If the tree has a fair framework do not disturb it in order to get down to an arbitrary limit of three or four main branches; sometimes the tree can carry more.  If the tree is too thick, thin it out by removing side branches of more or less size — saving the best, judging by both vigor and position.  Work through the whole top in this way until you reach the best judgment you can form of enough space and light for good interior foliage and fruit.  Apple branches should seldom be shortened, and when this seems desirable, cut to a side branch and not to a stub which will make a lot of weak shoots or brush in the top of the tree.

Pruning Apple Trees.

There is a great difference of opinion here regarding the pruning of three-year or older apple trees.  Many people cut back three, four and five-year-old trees half the season’s growth; others only cut back six inches.

Apple trees are cut back during their early life to cause branching and to secure short distances between the larger laterals on the main branches.  This secures a lower, stronger tree.  Cutting back twice or three times should secure a good framework of this kind, and then the apple should not be regularly and systematically cut back as the peach and apricot are.  It is not possible to prescribe definite inches, because