Prune a Crabapple Tree

Crabapple trees are fairly hardy trees that do not require much pruning for the purpose of encouraging growth. Your tree may need minimal pruning to maintain its silhouette. Also remove decayed branches that could invite disease, plus poorly formed branches that could suck away valuable nutrients from the rest of the tree.

Steps

  1. Perform major pruning during the dormant season. The ideal time to prune a crabapple tree is late winter or in the cold days of early spring, before leaves appear.[1]
    • You can prune in early winter, but it may make the tree vulnerable to cold injury.[2] Always wait until after the first killing frost to ensure that the tree has gone dormant.
    • In a pinch, you can prune the tree in early summer after it is done blooming, but the risk of "fire blight" or other disease is higher.[3] Finish all pruning before June (December in the Southern Hemisphere).[1]
  2. Remove suckers. Suckers are additional branches that begin growing underground and sprout near the base of the tree. Young suckers are thin and weak enough to cut away with sharp shears. Cut the suckers off at the base, at the exact point where they emerge from the ground.
    • Suckers usually come from the rootstock the crabapple was grafted onto. If left alone, these branches can develop into new trunks with a different flower and fruit.[1] Unfortunately, this process can leave the tree weak or vulnerable to disease, and the new trunk may not have desirable fruit.
    • Excessive sucker growth can be a sign that the tree was planted too deep, or that the tree's health is declining.[1][4]
  3. Remove water sprouts. Water sprouts are thin, straight shoots that grow vertically or at a vertical slant from the main branches of the tree. These shoots do not fruit and can crowd out other branches, leading to disease and insect problems from reduced air flow.[5] Cut them away at the base with sharp shears.
  4. Cut off dead or dying wood. Clearing dead wood is a good idea at any time of year, since it can introduce disease. Remove the entire dead or dying branch at its base, using a saw if needed. A branch that appears weak or isn't budding with the rest of the tree may be dying off. To verify this, scratch the branch to remove a portion of the bark and reveal the flesh underneath. If the flesh is white-green, the branch is living. If it is brown or black, the branch is dead.
  5. Saw off inward growing branches. Occasionally, a branch will begin to twist inward as it grows, heading back toward the center of the tree instead of out away from the center. Remove these branches to maintain the shape of the tree. Saw them off at the base, as near to the trunk as you can get without accidentally cutting into the trunk or other branches.[6]
  6. Prune away branches that cross or come too close. Along with inward growing branches, some branches become distorted by crossing over one another or intertwining. Similarly, some branches originate too close to one another on the trunk of the tree, which increases the likelihood of the branches eventually crossing.
    • For branches that are already crossing, you will likely need to saw off both branches at the base of the branches, nearest the trunk of the tree.
    • For branches that are growing near each other but are not yet crossing, you can get away with only removing one branch. Saw off the weakest or most awkwardly placed branch at its base.
  7. Saw off lower branches, if desired. Branches that hang low can interfere with walking, mowing, or other activities that require you to pass beneath the tree. If this is the case, you can cut away these lower branches by sawing them off close to the trunk. If this is not a problem, the lower branches can stay.[6]
  8. Keep aesthetic pruning to a minimum. Many arborists are tempted by additional live branch pruning to shape the crabapple's growth. This is risky with this genus, since over-pruning can trigger an explosion of water spout growth in future years.[7] If you want to take the chance, restrict yourself to a few scattered thinning cuts, removing small branches all the way back to the parent stem instead of just to a bud.[8]
    • The upper crown of the tree is especially likely to respond with water sprouts if pruned back.[7]
    • Even an experienced arborist should not remove more than 25% of a crabtree's total live canopy in one year.[4] This includes all the higher-priority tasks above before aesthetic pruning begins.
  9. Watch for fire blight. Fire blight infection is a common problem in crabapples, especially after pruning. If a branch is blackened or grows "mummified" fruit, cut off that branch as well as the branch it grew from, then discard it away from the trees.[9] Disinfect all tools.
    • If one of these branches is a major limb, you may be able to save it (especially in winter). Scrape off the outer and inner layers of bark, down to living tissue. Remove all discolored areas revealed by this process, plus 6–8 inches (15–20 cm) of wood beyond them.
  10. Trim away fresh vertical water sprouts and suckers in the summer. You may notice new small water sprouts or sucker shoots throughout the active growing season. You can cut these extra branches away as you notice them instead of waiting for the primary pruning season. Cutting them away redirects energy to the parts of the crabapple tree you want to preserve, and cutting them away early is often easier to do than pruning them later.
    • To prevent disease, take special care to use clean tools when pruning during the growing season.
    • Try to catch the water sprouts when they are less than 12 inches (30 cm) long, and when the base is still green. At this stage you can pull off the sprout by hand. This makes it harder for a new one to grow in its place.[10]

Tips

  • To prevent disease, disinfect your shears or saw. One way to do this is to dip the tool in alcohol before each cut.[4]
  • Do not prune the tips of your crabapple branches. Each branch contains latent buds along the interior. By cutting away the tip of the branch, you expose these buds and redirect the tree's energy to them. While this process may be favorable for other trees and plants, it is not desirable for crabapple trees. New shoots formed from these previously latent buds will produce awkward branches that will distort the shape of the tree.

Things You’ll Need

  • Sharp garden shears
  • Saw

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/flowering-crabapple-trees-7-424/
  2. ↑ http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/news/2013/effect-of-pruning-on-cold-hardiness-of-fruit-trees
  3. ↑ http://marinmg.ucanr.edu/Marin_Master_Gardener_Independent_Journal_Articles/?uid=17&ds=275
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 https://www.ext.nodak.edu/extnews/hortiscope/tree/crbapple.htm
  5. ↑ http://garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=201006-fruit-tree-care
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 https://newengland.com/yankee-magazine/living/gardening/crabapple/
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 http://www.plantamnesty.org/assets/docs/Cyberlibrary/Trees/ornamental%20cherries%20crabapples%20and%20purple%20leaf%20plums.pdf
  8. ↑ https://extension.umaine.edu/fruit/growing-fruit-trees-in-maine/pruning/types-of-pruning-cuts/
  9. ↑ http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7414.html
  10. ↑ http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/apples/apple-tree-water-sprouts.htm

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