Apple Tree

[maria warwick]

Have an apple tree to prune !

It is a pretty old tree and the owner is keen not to lose it.

I was going to just take out some of the bigger stuff this time and then sort the rest of the smaller stuff next year , to give the tree time to recover.

Does that sound OK or should I just go for it in one shot and prune it to a nice finish ??? There are 5 or 6 main stems , not just the one trunk.

Trying to get a decent shape may be a problem !

Any advice welcome.

[farmer rod]

It hasnt been pruned for fruit production recently

[maria warwick]

...aw , you guessed correctly

[daveatdave]

is it a tip or stem bearing tree? open the center up to form a goblet shape, remove dead wood and any that are overlapping and rubbing looks like it was not pruned properly the last time it was dun more shaped up rather than pruned there is a lot more involved to pruning fruit trees other than a chain saw more secateurs and loppers if don regular but with that you might need one

[agg221]

Don't take too much off at one go - it will bolt instead of making steady growth and you will then have an even bigger mess to sort out, together with several years of no fruit production.

 

I wouldn't worry about subtleties like tip vs. spur bearer at this stage. I would start by removing the ivy and have a good look for a graft - with multiple stems I suspect there isn't one and that if there ever was, what you now have is growth from the rootstock so there is unlikely to be much point trying to get fruit production.

 

Assuming you end up pruning for fruit, removal of one or two of the most upright branches is where I would stop this year. Use a drop-crotch approach, taking them right back to something which is the shape you actually want, which is low down and outward growing.

 

Aim to spread the work over about 5yrs, so you will need secateurs in a couple of years time.

 

Alec

[Andrew Gale]

There's an excellent book called The Fruit Tree Handbook by Ben Pike; it's well written and goes through all fruit trees, well worth buying if you intend on pruning lots of fruit trees.

[maria warwick]

Yeh...thought as much.... little bit for now and then sort it out in the next couple of years or so

 

Thanks guys