Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Pruning the Macintosh

I'm not positive this tree is a Macintosh, but that's what I'm calling it. This is what it looked like before I made any pruning cuts. 

Lee Reich said that old trees will have long branches that are reaching up to the sky (and apples up there can't be harvested because they're too high).  He said to take one or two of those big, tall pieces down in thinning cuts, to make the tree shorter and open up the center.

After the first branch was removed, the tree looked like this.
After the second branch was removed, it looked like this.
The tree is still too tall, but it's shorter than it was, and more open.

My evaluation at work is tomorrow. I've been a mediocre employee this past year, so I'm expecting a mediocre review.  I hope it's that good.  Of course I'm completely nervous.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, Jordan, very educational! Of course, my two apple trees are not much bigger than they were last spring when I planted them. The plum trees really took off, though, and everything has green buds this year, which I hope means they are doing okay. I am a total novice.

    I'm expecting blueberry and raspberry bushes, peach trees and a cherry tree soon. Everything in my life -- except that -- is at least two months behind where I expected I'd be this year, due to unexpected but important legal things that came up. I thought I had a good read on things, my daily life, but issues kept coming up. Another crazy week this week with law work. I wanted to be in Vermont, for delivery of fruit trees, etc., but I'm going to have to risk getting there after they arrive.

    And the work on my place in NY came to a halt when the contractor tried to squeeze in 3 more jobs after he started mine, then canceled mine due to rain. And when I told him to pick up all the debris he left for over a week, he sent an idiot with a tractor that left very deep ruts in my asphalt driveway, breaking it up over a 20 foot length. It looks like the contractor might owe me more money than I owe him for the second half of his work. (I'm getting estimates on fixing the driveway.)

    I didn't plan on saying so much! Just babbling about things....

    Good luck with the work evaluation. I'm sure it will go well. You are very thoughtful and explain things so well. All the best to you!

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  2. Kate - sorry to hear about the contractor! I'll know not to try and use him! Hope work things work out the way you want them to - and I'm sure the trees will be fine. If any are not, there's always next year to try again. Everyone is making a big deal about how we're 2 weeks ahead this year on weather, but I'm not complaining!

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  3. Kate- yeah, too bad about the driveway and the rest. My friend is using a guy I wasn't happy with and I think when she's done, she'll feel the same, but since he's a relative, my lips are sealed. She knew how I felt before...If you find a good one, grab on and hold tight!!
    Get to planting, you're making me tired!
    Jordan - an A+ on the pruning, and don't sweat the eval. We think you're OK...of course, we're not PAYING you, so.... ;0)

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