Fruit Tree Prunning

On December 30th we started pruning the trees at Pappy's Orchard.  So far it hasn't gone badly, just a little cold.

The idea of pruning is to remove branches so that sunlight can get to the inside of the tree (fruit has better color and is sweeter) and to make it easy to pick and maintain the trees.  It is mostly an art from, but Father used to tells us to follow these rules:

- Remove branches that grow back into the tree
- Remove branches that touch / cross over another branch
- Remove branches that are lower than knee distance to the ground (with fruit on they tend to rest on the ground and the fruit tends to rot)
- Don't leave the top of the tree 'bald' so that it gets sunburn

On the left you can see the progression of a cortland tree.  Medium sized trees require about 20 minutes for one person to do; large trees like the ones on the left required about 30 minutes.