Pruning and Training - Growing Organic Orchard Fruits - page 600

planting costs can be high. Begin using the pruning and training practices
described in this chapter to improve fruit quality and pest and disease man-
agement. In particular, open up the trees to ensure good light penetration
and air movement.
Freestanding,centralleaderdesign. To train an apple tree to a freestanding
central leader design, you may start with either an unbranched whip or
feathered tree ( figure 7.1 ➔ ). Provided that the branches on the feathered
trees are in suitable locations, you can save a year in training and come into
production sooner. Poorly located branches, however, are no bargain.
Traditionally, whips were headed back to several inches above where you
wanted the first scaffold branches to start. By heading back the leader, you
eliminate apical dominance and stimulate the first three or four buds be-
low the cut to grow. These new shoots form the scaffolds, and one shoot is
trained up to form the modified central leader.
If you can avoid heading back the leader, your trees will develop faster.
If you have a well-feathered tree, simply prune off the branches that you
do not want. Central leader trees are traditionally started with a cluster of
three or four branches about 3 feet above the ground. Space the branches
in the whorl 3 to 6 inches apart vertically so that no two or more branches
arise at the same height on the trunk, and evenly distribute the scaffold
branches around the tree. Leave the trunk bare for about 18 inches above the
topmost branch of the first whorl, and repeat the process to form a second
whorl. Some central leader or modified central leader trees have three or four
whorls.
An alternative to heading back the leader to stimulate branching is to re-
move some of the buds from the whips. Rub off all of the buds up to about
3 feet above the ground and rub off the first six buds directly below the ter-
minal bud. Leave roughly every second or third bud for now, choosing those
that point in the direction you want the branches to grow. This approach
produces branches that are distributed evenly along the trunk, rather than
in distinct whorls. Figure 12.9 ➔ shows the stages involved in developing a