Apple tree pruning

[HeyWayne]

I was lucky enough to inherit an apple tree on my plot. However it has only borne a meagre handful of fruit.

My personal - and somewhat uneducated guess is that the tree needs pruning. I've posted a picture of said tree on my blog.

Does anyone have any suggestions - am I thinking the right thing, how and when should I prune the tree etc etc?

Many ta's in advance.

Wayne

[kentvegplot]

Apple trees often have a year when they don't really fruit, that might be what's happened here.

Having said that, it does look as if it could do with some pruning. This is a winter job, so you've got plenty of time to gather advice from other grapes.

The pruning books make a distinction between 'tip-bearers' and 'spur-bearing' types - and just to confuse us all, a Bramley is a 'partial tip-bearer'

I would start with the 3 D's - remove anything that is Dead, Diseased or Damaged. Then look at removing branches which cross each other (the rubbed surfaces help nasties to get into the tree). After that, you need to open up the centre of the tree (so that you can throw your hat through the middle, apparently!)

Bear in mind that you might need to do this over several years, to avoid too much shock to the tree.....

No doubt other people will be able to add to this.

Good luck!

[Alison]

There's some quite good advice on the Ken Muir site (www.kenmuir.co.uk) which I found very useful in helping me find out how to prune all my fruit bushes / trees.

[HeyWayne]

Apple trees often have a year when they don't really fruit, that might be what's happened here.

Having said that, it does look as if it could do with some pruning. This is a winter job, so you've got plenty of time to gather advice from other grapes.

The pruning books make a distinction between 'tip-bearers' and 'spur-bearing' types - and just to confuse us all, a Bramley is a 'partial tip-bearer'

I would start with the 3 D's - remove anything that is Dead, Diseased or Damaged. Then look at removing branches which cross each other (the rubbed surfaces help nasties to get into the tree). After that, you need to open up the centre of the tree (so that you can throw your hat through the middle, apparently!)

Bear in mind that you might need to do this over several years, to avoid too much shock to the tree.....

No doubt other people will be able to add to this.

Good luck!

Thanks for that Kent - looks like I'll be doing a bit of reading up, and getting the ladder out!

There's some quite good advice on the Ken Muir site (www.kenmuir.co.uk) which I found very useful in helping me find out how to prune all my fruit bushes / trees.

Cheers Alison. Is it me, or is that site quite difficult to use? Couldn't find anything specific and was unable to open the factsheets...? Thanks anyway.

[scarey55]

There's some quite good advice on the Ken Muir site (www.kenmuir.co.uk) which I found very useful in helping me find out how to prune all my fruit bushes / trees.

We planted a load of 2 to 3 year old fruit trees and bushes last year and I am beginning to think about pruning. Just looked at this site and it looks very good - thanks for letting us know about it Alison.

[littlemark]

One other point which you'll probably find in a good book (any editions of the RHS 'The Fruit Garden Displayed', and especially 'Pruning' by Christopher Brickell, which although it covers the pruning of many trees/shrubs, has a good section on apples, and is very good at explaining why we need to prune) is that apple trees tend to produce fruiting spurs on horizontal growing branches. All that vertical growth at the top of the tree is unlikely to ever produce any fruit, and is a common condition with older and neglected apple trees.

Best of luck, Mark

[HeyWayne]

I'm such a doofus. I noticed my pop-up blocker thing was on so couldn'y open the pdf's....

Needless to say, I am now reading through them.

Thanks again Alison.

[Snadger]

I planted a bare rooted Sunset (Cox self fertile) in a tub last Autumn. It has about twelve apples on which are making the tree bend over and the branches are horizontal. I haven't staked the tree on purpose and decided not to stake the branches. Hopefully the weight of the apples will cause the branches to permanently grow horizontal. Clever things these apple trees!

I'll see if I can dig out a piccie from a couple of weeks ago....ah, here we are! Not bad for the first year of a bare rooted plant!

[littlemark]

I planted a bare rooted Sunset (Cox self fertile) in a tub last Autumn. It has about twelve apples on which are making the tree bend over and the branches are horizontal. I haven't staked the tree on purpose and decided not to stake the branches. Hopefully the weight of the apples will cause the branches to permanently grow horizontal. Clever things these apple trees!

Newly planted maiden apple trees ideally shouldn't be cropped in the first couple of years, giving the tree a better chance to establish a good root system. I would imagine that this is less of an issue when growing in a pot where the root ball will be fairly resticted anyway. At some point it is definately an advantage to let a young tree crop so as to help pull the laterals down, This encourages the formation of fruiting spurs, and also helps to increase the 'crotch angle' (the angle between trunk and branch) and therefore reduce the chance of branches breaking in future years under heavy loads. Young trees which tend to produce more upward growth can have their branches tied down with string to help this process along.

Mark