Hi All, I am training most of my trees on a wire trellis in the oblique palmette form. Since I just planted these trees this year I am working on the central leader and bottom scaffolds. Some of the trees continue to extend these three shoots. Many others had stopped growing for a while and started growing again. Based on photos and drawings on the internet I surmise that is what is called "regrowth".
I have read that regrowth should be discouraged to help suppress aphids (which I do see of the Green Apple variety). The references I saw said nothing about whether suppressing regrowth was a mature orchard practice vs new orchard... so I'm sort of in the dark and looking for guidance. My goal is always to maintain a healthy orchard, but also to maximize leader and scaffold development. So, my main questions are: Does "regrowth" continue to develop the shoot or does it just become a terminal? Also, there are new leaf buds popping up from the leaf axils on some trees. Will those develop into lateral growth? On the one hand, I would want to remove them when possible to keep energy directed to extending the main shoots. But on the other hand, should I keep some near the tip to train into the leader if the regrowth doesn't continue to extend? Or if a well positioned lateral becomes more vigorous than the original leader? I could just let all the new growth continue for a while and see what it does, but I have a feeling when the summer heat comes growth will cease and would want to eliminate all unproductive growth as soon as possible to maximize the training goal for as long as I can. Since the trees are still small, managing the aphids on regrowth is doable so the priority is growth. Should I remove all the new leaf buds except regrowth at the tip of the leader? Or keep some near the tip for possible training into a new leader? I hope I made sense in describing the situation. Thanks, Rye Hefley Future Farmers Marketer So. Cal.
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