The very popular Honeycrisp apple – celebrated for acute flavor and a crisp luscious bite – presents several challenges for growers . stick out big crop at an early age , the tree may fruit so to a great extent that trunks snap off at the grafting join . Other common troubles let in premature fruit drop and sunscald as well as a tendency to carry biennial harvests . Correct pruning and education can ease some of these problems .
Step 1
travail a 2 - pes deep hole 18 column inch away from the tree . Set your wooden C. W. Post in the hole , and pack the soil around it until it ’s sturdy . Setting posts soon after planting deflect damage fresh root .
Step 2
Train the honeycrisp to a key leader with a scaffold arm structure . Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree plant in early winter can be lead back by clipping the top at 3 feet high just after the first bud candid in natural spring . This forces other development of branches .
Step 3
Select one shoot out of the several that develop at the top of the tree . When the firm shoot is 4 in retentive , clip any competing shoot off at the arm apprehension ( the swelling between limb and trunk ) .
Step 4
Choose four unattackable lateral branches from the shoot spring up between 6 inches and 14 inches down from the top cut . Select fork about 90 arcdegree apart on the body and staggered about 3 inches apart vertically . increment should be slightly upwards ; if the branch bicycle seat or join with the trunk is quintet - shaped , apply a branch spreader to push the limb towards horizontal . cut out competing branches and any vertical suckers .
Step 5
hack the drawing card again in wintertime when the tree diagram is dormant ; head the drawing card off by trot straight across at from 20 to 28 inches above the first top slash . sustain the first years branch whorl by clipping out competing suckers and lay outgrowth spreaders if needed .
Step 6
Select a new leader after spring growth begins and snub back any competing vertical shoots . Choose four new lateral branches using the same spacing as before . Each year pursue the same approach pattern of wintertime and spring pruning to make a tree with a potent structure and a pyramidical shape .
Step 7
Tie the trunk of the honeycrisp apple tree to the support post when the tree sets its first craw . employ several loose zero tie-up to hold the trunk upright . Typically a four year - old tree with a trunk diameter of 3 1/2 inches ( several inches above the graft ) should only be allowed about 60 apples . Thin yield clusters by snip fruit spurs near the branch collar .
Warning
Not thinning fruit contributes to early fruit drop and biyearly assume figure . Heavy loads of fruit may be of poor quality or never mature at all .
