Just a trim, please!

Trimming the apple trees may not spend time on your Winter To-Do list (right next to snowboarding, book-reading and curling of course), but it's a top priority for the happy orchardist.  Ladies, you know all about getting regular haircuts to remove those sheen-destroying split ends.  Well, a healthy fruit-producing apple tree operates under the same philosophy. 

During the annual pruning, we shear the "suckers" or "powerhouse branches" that crowd an apple tree's frame. "Suckers" are the vertically-growing, spindly branches that spend the tree's life-giving flow of water and nutrients on growing longer, but not on producing fruit.  Trim off the suckers and we free up the tree's resources to focus on growing large, nutrient-dense apples!  Barring a freakish late frost/freeze this Spring, Dad and Grandpa's faithful pruning should result in an abundant harvest in 2011. 

Here're some pictures I got yesterday when I went to check in on Dad (Wally) and Grandpa (Walter Sr.):

The BEFORE picture of a Red Delicious tree, pre-pruning.
Notice how it's crowded with the vertical "powerhouses"/"suckers.

 Dad strategizes before his next wave of pruning.  At Miller's we use
compressed-air pruners.  Don't try this at home, kids,
there's 120 lbs of compressed air powering them!

The AFTER picture.  Only the strong, bud-rich branches remain

Speaking of buds, check out the rich red-tinged bud at the tip of this branch
(in the fuzzy foreground.)  That's a sure sign of Spring!

21st-century farming: Dad talks on his oh-so-modern cell phone while
gloriously perched on his 1950s era Massey-Ferguson tractor!