Apple Trees

  • Remove sucker growth at the base to keep the energy moving up into the tree versus into the new tree.
  • Determine your central leader (one main branch going up)
  • Remove broken branches and any branches moving inward.
  • Cut at the collar, not the trunk of the tree. Basically 1/2 inch from the trunk of the tree.
  • When you’re done, it should be kind of pyramid shaped.
  • Open the frame up to get more air circulation inside the tree to keep disease down.
  • Cut at a 45 degree angle to keep water from pooling on the flat cut and causing disease.
  • You can use limb spreaders to keep limbs from getting to close and rubbing up against each other.

Raspberries

  • There are 2 types of Raspberries: Primocanes and Floricanes (produce 2 harvests a year)
  • Trim your primocanes down to the ground in January.
  • Taylor is an amazing tasting Raspberry.

How to Start Growing Raspberries [Compilation]

  • You need full sun and good drainage. On a slope is perfect.
  • Plant them 18″ apart. Compact them down so there are no air pockets.
  • Clip them down as close to the ground as possible to invigorate growth. 
  • By May you should see good growth.
  • Prune in January or February.
  • Fertilize in early April and Early June. Do not fertilize after the 4th of July.
  • Got worms eating your leaves or spider mites sucking the chloroform out? Mix 1 tablespoon Neem Oil and 1 teaspoon of Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap with a gallon of warm water and spray everything. Leaves and canes.
  • Deer and Rabbit repellent filled with blood and pepper keep rabbits and deer away from your Raspberries. Wear gloves when you put them up. Hang them every 3-5′ apart.
  • Mid-August is the primocane harvest time.
  • You can keep birds off your Raspberries by hanging aluminum foil pains or cans that are shiny and bang in the wind to scare birds off.
  • In early October, lay down K-Mag 0-0-21.5, which is 21% sulfur and 10.5% magnesium. Put down 1 pound over 30 feet. And add 5 pounds of Soil Acidifier for 30 feet. Use gloves. 

Raspberry Pruning 101: How To, When, & Why

  • Prune in Spring so you can see which ones are brown and which ones are grey.
  • Grey are completely dead. Brown is alive.
  • Prune the dead ones to declutter.

How to Prune Raspberries for BIGGER Harvests!

  • In Spring, as you get a tall shooter up, trim it at 2-4 feet. It will then spread out laterally and grow a ton of fruit.
  • After that stem fruits, trim it all the way down as it will never grow fruit again.
  • After they fruit, trim them all the way down to the ground in mid winter.

Pruning Raspberries – Why? How? When? (2020)

  • Clean in early Spring.
  • For summer bearing Raspberries, simply trim them down to the soil level any weak or damaged canes.
  • Thin your Raspberry patch so that the healthy stems are 6″ apart.

Butterfly Bushes

  • Do not prune until you see green buds on the stems.
  • Trim them to about 14″ tall, just above a new growth / buds are.
  • If it’s grown to 10 feet tall, don’t take it down to 14″ just yet. Trim it down to 2-4′ and then when you see where the new growth is coming in, trim down to 14″
  • If you don’t trim it back, it won’t bloom like crazy.
  • Trim in late January.

Buddleja davidii (Butterfly Bush) pruning

  • Trim off all the smaller stuff.
  • Remove branches that rub up against each other as that can cause disease.
  • Remove some branches to get good air circulation.
  • Cut dead branches off.
  • If you don’t trim the super tall ones down they will break off / split open in the wind and the whole plant will die.
  • Look to trim above buds that are outward facing versus inward facing.
  • It’s OK to but higher up if you don’t see any buds lower.