Today I’m sharing a September task that’ll really up your fruit production in your deciduous fruit trees – pears, apples, plums, apricots. An awesome party trick to slow growth down on over zealous plums and stubbornly upright pears.
It’s time to tie down young branches, to change their direction from up to out. Especially important on young fruit trees that you are shaping into perfect specimens. Also for older trees that have had an old branch removed and a newbie has burst forth.
Tying branches down opens trees for light and air, and inspires loads more fruitful wood because the more horizontal the branch, the more fruitful it is.
The more horizontal the branch, the less inclined towards lush, unproductive growth it is. That’s how tree hormones roll. All the fruitful energy in a vertical branch happens at it’s tip. Tie a branch down and the energy shifts. Laterals pop up out of the branch, and where there was one – there are now many fruitful tips.
And September’s your moment! Sap is rising and this years growth ring begins to bust a move, making new wood soft and flexible. By time Autumn rolls around the wood has thickened, the years growth ring set in place and it’s time to remove the tie.
Here’s How
Using soft stocking tie, loosely tie one end to the branch and the other end back to the trunk or to a rock or tent peg in the ground. Loosely being of great importance – as in loose enough that you could also fit a finger through the loop. Easy peasy.
