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Pruning advice for a Bramley
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Message 1.Â
Posted by calculad (U3607616) on Saturday, 8th January 2011
Bramley is described as partial tip bearing and when i went to prune today I noticed that practically all the new growth has a fruit bud at each tip and very few as spurs.
If I prune it as my other apple trees I fear I will have no fruit. It's about 6-7 years old and fruited well last year. Any advice, pointers welcome. Do I just take oput some new growth thereby sacrificing some of the crop. I can't allow it to get too big. It is at present about 2m tall and has a nice open structure.
K -
Message 2
Posted by bogus the fungi man (U14705597) on Saturday, 8th January 2011
Hello Calculad.
When I was pruning Bramleys, about 20 years ago, we used to remove the wood that fruited last year down to the main branch. All the other shoots that are to fruit this year we would thin out to a hand's width. Once we had done this we made what we used to call a "Helipad" by bending these fruiting branches down and tucking them in under each other so they are as horizontal as possible. This gives a strange looking tree till the leaves are on but this "helipad" gave maximum light distribution to the leaves. Your fruiting shoots are probably quite long as the Bramley is one of our most vigorous trees. The longer they are the easier they are to tuck. This all depends on the size and vigour of your tree of course. -
Message 3
Posted by ageing_hippie (U6742113) on Saturday, 8th January 2011
I'm always cautious about heavy pruning because it stimulates foliage growth at the expense of fruit. Perhaps you could shorten some branches and leave the rest for another year. Bramleys are only partial tip bearers and can be encouraged to produce fruiting spurs. I even have one trained as an espalier that produces magnificent, huge apples every year.
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Message 4
Posted by hereisabee (U2342191) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
You can reduce the long shoots by a third or so and still have fruit. I took this picture of a Bramley I prune, just to remind myself of where buds develop.
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Message 5
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
by bending these fruiting branches down and tucking them in under each other soÂ
I can second the bending over of the branches. This creates the potential for far more fruit bearing.
I can't quite see the point of tucking them in under each other.
What does post mean exactly by that? I may misunderstand. -
Message 6
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
I can't allow it to get too bigÂ
Why not? How big is too big?
With a Bramley the bigger the better, and the more of everything the better!
Just do some wassailing and forget it! (not too late!)
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Message 7
Posted by bogus the fungi man (U14705597) on Sunday, 16th January 2011
Hello gardda, Sorry for the delay. What I mean is that you can create a horizontal lattice work by bending the fruiting branches down and hooking them under the main branches and, where there's no main branches within reach then you can tuck the fruiting branches under each other or, on occasions, weave them together.
This is mainly for mature tree of the kind you would walk under. If you train your tree over the years from start it works well. Trying with an older tree that's not been trained from the start is not easy.
HTH -
Message 8
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Monday, 17th January 2011
It must look rather interesting, fungiman but does it produce more fruit?!
My tree was so prolific this last year that I am thinking I may be able to up my cider production next year.
It can be a tiresome job, and I ploughed in more than 20 gallons of juice. I've still got good fibre in green packets, called skin, in the garage ready to eat.
Had I picked and polished, those would have lasted until the raspberry season.
As it is they have to be quite well peeled and some have to be picked out for the birds for rottenness.
Cider production really depends on the number of customers/takers! -
Message 9
Posted by bogus the fungi man (U14705597) on Monday, 17th January 2011
It does, gardda! I'm not sure it produced more fruit but helped the long tip bearing branches to get more light. If you leave them they all stand upright and those in the centre of the tree have reduced light levels. It was what we were taught at Pershore College and it appeared to work well. I've used the method in later years with good results. The apples appear to be larger but not necessarily greater in number.
The Bramley, when mixed with with other apples, makes for good cider, I did 5 gallon last year and still enjoying it. -
Message 10
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Monday, 17th January 2011
You can't go wrong with Pershore Fungiman!
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Message 11
Posted by rosalba (U4525566) on Friday, 21st January 2011
just snagging thanks
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