Beskärning och värdering av gamla äppelträd

Abstract

The thesis, Pruning of old Appletrees, is based on an observation and interview study in combination with a literature study. The issues are: How to prune old apple trees to achieve the goal of getting an easy-to-maintain and viable tree? As well as, what variety of values can an old apple tree Provide? The questions are interesting because in the current situation more and more old apple trees disappear from our residential neighbourhood, often with the argument that they require extra care, and do not have any direct value. The purpose of the work is to investigate the values that old apple trees can offer, and how the amount of time managing these trees can be reduced by a well thought out crop. The answers to these questions should be able to present support for argumentation when it comes to the destruction off the trees, and thus saving many old apple trees. Through the result that emerged during the work, it is clear that a more cautious pruning reduces the production of water shoots, which in turn leads to a smaller maintenance effort. In the question of which different values an old apple tree may have, it is clear that an old apple tree has biological values but also social and cultural-historical values. Several control groups with active craftsmen could have been given a greater breadth in the study. However, this was not possible since the time for the study was limited. An evaluation and follow-up of the pruning could have provided a better understanding of the impact of the intervention on the cut trees. By doing a study on how old apple trees reacted in the long term to different types of pruning, a clearer method for pruning old apple trees could be designed.