Fruit tree holding on by a thread, client wants to get another year out of it. Thoughts?

[climbingmonkey24]

They said it produced great fruit last year. But the weight was so heavy it broke and bent some branches. In addition to the trunk rot and damage some of the main horizontal limbs are also decayed.

After talking with a few other arborists to get their opinion, I was thinking pruning for general thinning / weight reduction at the ends, and then maybe using 2x4’s to support some of the horizontal branches and maybe the main part of the trunk area.

The client acknowledges it should probably be removed but wants to try and get another year or so out of it.

 

[southsoundtree]

Easy to retain.

Fruit trees can be trellises or propped about forever.


Look for something from your cooperative extension service

Training and pruning your home orchard

A visual guide to training and pruning apple, pear, sweet cherry, sour cherry, peach, plum, apricot, fig, persimmon, walnut, hazelnut and chestnut trees.

extension.oregonstate.edu

What is there to gain from thinning?
Keep all the fruit buds and prune to produce more.

If you hold up the tree, it doesn't need to produce a much wood, therefore more energy and resources for other things.

Treated lumber or pipe.

Minimal contact with the branches... If you screw a long lag bolt onto the top of a treated 4x4 with 4" sticking out, then cut and smooth the shank, you have a story that can go into a drilled socket in the trunk.

Put the 4x4 on a pier block with an (adjustable, if needed) saddle.

I'm draw a pic.

 

[climbingmonkey24]

When I said “thin” I meant pruning to support fruit production, not just haphazardly cutting random branches. Wrong word maybe