I accept that strange things happen – because they do, I accept that trees don’t always do what they are supposed to do – because they don’t and I am comfortable with this – because I am. What I am not comfortable with and what I can’t accept is the traditional twaddle that is done – because ‘that’s how it’s done’.

My mother bought an apple tree. Before she planted it, she consulted the plant breeder who then spoke to an orchardist. She was advised to prune the poor wee tree before planting, so she did. In fact it’s worse than that, she was given step-by-step pruning instructions over the phone. With phone in one hand and secateurs in the other she dutifully savaged her apple tree. In her defence, she did have the plant breeder and an orchardist guiding her, in their defence they had traditional twaddle…

Their theory having been passed down through the generations by song, or translated directly from cave paintings goes something like; ‘you have to cut all the branches off before planting to force the tree to grow roots’. This is so wrong on so many levels that it needs to be stopped. Don’t do it! Yes, I’m sure our traditional orchardist may tell us that, that this what they have always done and it works – but just because it works, doesn’t mean it’s the best option – you can cure warts by keeping a potato in your pocket… that works (apparently / traditionally), if you keep it there for long enough, but there are other better options that are far more effective.

Our poor wee apple tree, if our traditionalists stopped to think about what they know for a second or two, is deciduous; the sugars and starches that kick start it back into life every spring are stored in the buds and branches over winter. So if the sugars and starches (buds and branches) are removed before planting how can it grow anything come spring? And if the buds do burst (assuming there are buds left to burst) why would the plant invest that energy into growing roots? Growing roots won’t give it energy to needs to… grow roots. For the plant to get the energy it needs to grow roots it needs foliage.

If my well-meaning mother acting through her sprit guides hadn’t removed all of the buds and branches, her wee apple tree would come back into leaf in spring. Those leaves would start producing sugars and starches and that energy could have been invested into root growth. But thanks to the advice given, the poor wee tree will come into leaf, work out that it hasn’t got enough leaves to grow roots, so it will have to grow back the leaves that were taken from it before it can grow roots. I suspect it will live, but it won’t get the head start that cutting was supposed to achieve – the cutting will have put it behind by several weeks.

Things get worse for the poor wee tree, because it most likely has lost several roots in the planting process [this is to be expected and is most likely the reason behind the flawed logic of our ancestors]. With its roots compromised the tree will have reduced ability to get the water it needs to produce foliage. The pruning, far from helping has in fact doubled the root loss problem. The leaf buds that were removed contained pre-formed leaves so the tree now has to grow new leaves from scratch as well as grow roots (twice the growth with half the roots).

If my mother’s caldron consultants wanted to actually help her apple tree they should have advised her to plant it, water it, then leave it alone. The correct thing to do is not to cut off anything before planting (especially when planting deciduous trees).

To give any plant the best possible chance at life, plant it, water it and don’t cut anything off for a year – let the plant work out where it needs to invest the energy that it has. Plants don’t think, they respond – so let them respond, let them grow roots or foliage as required – let them do what they have been doing before tradition set it.