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Cheers for the detailed response. That's interesting.
My dad has some apple trees. One of which is a massive inherited one that has been reduced and reduced to a managble size and shape. It's still fucking massive... maybe 8m at a guess. But has a good shape.
The only problem is controlling the mistletoe.
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hugo7
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Apples rarely reach a fully mature crown so it’s nice to see them in good condition even if they need a surgical kicking every 5 years or so along with the annual tidy up of the central crown.
I don’t recommend felling trees for no reason but there’s a time and a place.
The overwhelming majority of fruit trees on our site are in excellent condition, my almond is looking a bit peaky but looks like it’s blossomed well this spring and most of the post-pruning dieback has settled down now. I did give it a real slap when we took on the plot as it had gone 10+yrs without being touched, I also removed a limb when I put my shed in but it didn’t seem to mind that so much.
edmundro
It’s more that the root system would be a constant battle, regardless of how hard they were pruned. Currently the clump is about 12m high and crown spread covers the whole plot and overhangs the 3 adjacent ones. They’d been pollarded in the past so the regrowth is incredibly dense and tangled. Plenty of brambles and Virginia creeper in there as well to make it even more fun.
Apples root very shallow so you’d never be able to dig anything without hitting endless obstacles.
They’re fully mature and past their prime so don’t even really produce many apples at this point.
As part of my tree work career I spent a LOT of time restoring and supporting fruit trees. These ones are, to use a technical term, fucking shite.
It would be better to turn it into a community plot for bbqs and for the kids to play in rather than trying to palm it off on a tennant.
I provided a price to both heavily prune and fully remove the trees and the council said nah.
Not my plot, not my problem.