Pruning Apple Trees

                I have never really pruned before but after going to a pruning seminar, doing extensive research and talking to my boss at Jeffries nurseries, I think I now am able to prune an apple tree and tell you how.  I have both 3 year apples trees and a 5 year apple tree and this apparently is the best time to be working on improving the structure of the tree. They are still a little young to prune for the purpose of improving fruit production. Other reasons for pruning might be for removing broken or diseased branches.

                The best time to prune is about now or in the fall when the tree is dormant. You should be taking off 15-20% of branches for young trees or 30% for older trees. If you prune too much off, the plant sets off these things called “suckers” which come out of the ground and resemble a stem. This happens because the roots are now relatively more active than the top growth, and the energy has nowhere to go, so suckers are created; which are counter-productive. Suckers may also appear if the tree is stressed, as you can see in this picture even before I pruned. 

                Pruners or clippers are used for small branches and saws or large shears are used for larger branches. Some say cutting on an angle (45 degrees) is better for shedding water. Others say cutting straight on (90 degrees) leaves a smaller surface area for diseases to infect. I choose straight on but we'll see how that goes. I was told at the seminar that you should cut low down to the collar of the branch while other people I have talked to said to leave a 1/4'' of branch left. I chose to do some of each. The picture below is a spur, a short stubby twig that will flower and produce fruit. It is recommended to prune spurs for larger fruit and to produce more spurs. Also remove any that are too close together or diseased.


                Types of branches you should be cutting of are ones that are criss-crossing, broken, diseased, downward/upward growing or are making narrow crotches. Apples trees also tend to have a dominant stem right in the middle that all of the other branches come out of. This is called having a central leader. Some people may keep it this way but others may strive to have an open centre. This allows for more air-flow, adequate light to hit all of the leaves and a higher yielding, more productive tree. In some trees, I kept the central leader because it was hard to remove without removing a large portion of the tree but in my older one (seen below) I strived to make an open centre.

     
    I have never pruned these trees before so I pruned them very hard. I think I may have pruned too much but they say it’s difficult to prune an apple tree too hard. I'll let you know what I did wrong later but here are my before and after pictures of the one tree. Sorry I rambled on a bit but it turns out that pruning trees in general is sort of an art and like most arts, it takes a lot of practice to get good. Just remember to stand back once in a while and look at the bigger picture. 

            

Hive Sweet Hive

                Bee season is on the way! Things are about to warm up and my bee packages from New Zealand will be coming soon (most likely mid-May, more on that later). This means that these bees will need a home. Over the next couple of weeks I will be building hive supers and frames and transferring my bees from last year into nucs… these beekeeping terms may be confusing, let me explain...

                The pictures below compare a typical hive and a nuc. A hive can be composed of many parts and houses a larger colony to produce a honey crop for the beekeeper. A nuc is, as you can see, half the size of a hive ("nuc" is short for "nucleus"). Its purpose is to care for smaller bee populations, house bees from an overcrowded colony, care for spare queen bees, or rear new queen bees. I will be putting my bee colonies into nucs this week because they did not overwinter that well and having a smaller home is easier for them to take care of and keep warm.

                              

                The next picture below outlines the components and pieces of a hive. Starting from the bottom, there is a bottom board which is intended to be a base for the hive and a landing platform. The brood chamber is where the queen lives, lays eggs and gives rise to brood (bee larva). There may be one or two brood chambers at a time (depending on the beekeepers style.) The queen excluder stops the queen from going to the top of the hive (since she is full of eggs, her abdomen is to big too fit through the grate.) This is to avoid eggs being laid among the supers. The supers are where the honey is stored. As the season goes on, more supers are added to the top to make way for more honey storage. There may be as much as 5 or more supers near the end of the honey flow, depending on how strong the hive is. And lastly, the hive cover tops it off to complete this bee shelter.

                                               

                Inside both the brood chamber and super, there are frames of honey comb. There are usually 9 – 10 frames per box as you can see in the picture below. My hive equipment I got last year was bought used from some guy in Manitou, and you can tell just how used by the color of the honey comb. The dark color is from many uses in the brood chamber. The frame darkens as more larva hatch out and shed their cocoons. Honey comb not used in the brood chamber stays nice and bright. You can also see the crystalized honey on the side of this frame which means that this frame will be great for putting into spring colonies. 

Sryup 101

                It seemed that just as soon as the syrup season started, it was over. March and April are the months the time that sap flows from the maple trees, and this year it went from March 15th to April 17th for us. Sap needs these specific conditions that the spring offers us in order to flow out of the trees. The day temperatures need to be above freezing temperature and the night temperatures need to be below freezing temperatures to give a nice fluctuation in temperature. The cooler periods provide “suction” or “negative pressure” which draws the water into the roots while the warmers periods provide “positive pressure” which causes the sap to flow out of the tree through a wound or a tap hole.

                The syrup happened to be flowing right when things got busy for me at University with exams. I was able to help my dad tap the trees and get them set up, but the rest was all up to my family. My dad and brother collected the sap every day and my mom did all of the boiling.
               
                Ken Fosty, the professional arborist that gave the presentation that got me into syrup production, suggested that I start out with 20 taps. This means that I should start with 40 because… why not. It’s a good thing I did because only 20 of them produced. The ones that did not produce were perhaps too small (a tree needs to be at least 8 inches diameter and some were border-line too small) or were not in a sunny or open enough area to catch enough sunlight and warmth. Next year I will be more efficient at picking trees. 

                How do you tell if it’s a maple tree without any leaves? The branches are a give-away. As you can see from the picture, the braches or buds sprout from the same node and opposite from each other. Other trees have alternating branches going back and forth. There is also a picture of the maple flowers that I took on April 23rd below. Maple trees also tend to have new branches that are red in color. 

                It is suggested that boiling of the sap be undertaken outside because boiling inside could make for a very humid house (mind you one that smells like syrup). We tried various methods outside but the wind got the best of us and all boiling was moved to the kitchen stove. With the overhead oven fan on full blast, it was perfect.  It takes a lot of sap boiling to make a decent product with 40 liters of water to boil off to make 1 liter of syrup. Next winter I would like to make some sort of outdoor boiler system for kicks. Overall my parents didn't mind the whole process and said that they would do it again next year. Which is good for me because this stuff is delicious. 

Welcome

               Hello there, my name is Patrick Hamilton. Thanks for stopping by and showing interest in my new blog! The purpose of this is most likely just to show what goes on in my weekly life, connect more with people and perhaps exchange information/tips about what I'm doing, but first, a little about me…

     

           I grew up and still do most of my work in Miami Manitoba. I happen to have a great family who is really supportive. I am also fortunate to live in a rural setting with lots of land and resources to work with. I went to Miami collegiate for grades K-12. In my high-school years I started working at DuPont Pioneer in Carman Manitoba as apart of their canola research team. After graduating, I took an opportunity to work at a Pioneer location in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia for a couple months. Upon returning from my trip to Australia, I began training for a full marathon as apart of Team Diabetes. The race itself took place in Rome, Italy meaning I had another excellent chance to travel the world. In the following year I enrolled at the University of Manitoba where I obtained my Agricultural Diploma. After the completion of my diploma, I extended my education by enrolling within the Agronomy program. Currently I have one remaining term before officially obtaining an Agricultural degree in Agronomy.

         I have been working in a small vegetable garden since I was 15 and now that I am 22 years old, I have a whole acre to experiment with. I’m attempting to grow every kind of available vegetable crop this climate will allow in my garden and so far I’m doing pretty well. Growing vegetables has always been my main passion, however in 2014 I also expanded to producing honey. Last year I took the plunge and purchased 5 hives and with a little bit of book smarts, family support and mentorship I got through it. I am very proud of my first year and I can’t wait for the upcoming season. Some new ventures this year (that you will be able to see me trudge through) include encountering new vegetables (such as sweet potatoes, grains and various others), fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and apples), herbs (to dry and make teas and spices), seed saving, and maple syrup. I've read all the books and am excited to apply everything I have learned.

         I hope to update this webpage weekly if not every few days. If you want to learn more about what I'm all about, check out the, "About" tab above. If you have a question or just want to chat, send me an email.

         Cheers to a great season!