Management Techniques for Apple Trees After Harvest
Apple trees have basically finished dropping their leaves before late September. For early-leaf-drop fruit trees, the accumulation of organic nutrients is significantly reduced, which affects the late differentiation of flower buds and next year's flowering and fruit setting, and has an adverse effect on the trees' overwintering. Rot disease and early leaf drop disease will also occur more severely. In order to reduce losses, remedial work should focus on the following in winter and spring...
Post-harvest pruning. First, remove the water sprouts within the canopy, the upright tender shoots that sprouted in autumn, the sprouts near girdling and ring-cutting wounds, and the restraining branches left in summer. Second, cut back slender branches, aged drooping branches, and branches dragging on the ground; thin out weak slender branches, ineffective branches at the bottom that receive no light, and excessively vigorous branches in the middle and upper parts, so as to reduce nutrient consumption, promote branch fullness, and produce plump buds, which is beneficial for overwintering.
Clean up the orchard. After harvest, in combination with pruning, cut off all kinds of diseased shoots and buds and damaged branches, saw off and scrape off branches and trunks suffering from rot disease, and properly collect them at any time for destruction. Thoroughly clean up the residual branches, fallen leaves, and diseased and insect-damaged rotten fruit in the orchard and bury them deeply. Destroy insect cocoons on branch tips and hiding places for pests in coarse cracked bark. Thoroughly clean the orchard, eliminate sources of disease and insects, and leave no dead corners, creating a good ecological environment for apple production the following year.