apple Pruning advice for young Apple trees

[Myatix]

Hi Everyone,

This os my first post so I hope you dont mind me asking such a newbie question…

 

i have planted 2 new Apple trees in our garden. A Bramley and a Braeburn both on MM106 root stock. 
 

I Would really like some advice on creating a beautiful open center tree that will be focal features of the garden.

 

The below images are of the Bramley Apple that we planted last summer and must be at least 3 years old I would guess. I have tried to prune it but I am uncertain if the 3 central branches are too vertical? Ideally the first set of branches needs to be high enough to get a lawn mower under but low enough so we can pick as much fruit as possible on a small ladder.

 

 

Bramley (Hedge is South side and fence west)
 

I plan to mulch under both trees with wood chips soon and remove some of the grass to accelerate growth but any further tips would be appreciated.

 

the next set of images is the Braeburn that was planted a month ago and I hope to keep reasonably small compared to the Bramley. Can anyone give me some tips on pruning this 2 year old apple tree?

 

 

 

Braeburn (Hedge is north side)

All the advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Peasgood]

I am going to try and be kind but have to say you shouldn't prune them first and then ask how to prune them.

First rule is don't cut branches in half like that, either leave it alone or cut it off completely. They would have been better left alone.

The two lower branches growing horizontally should be cut right off.

Leave the rest to see what happens this year but you have cut the branches you wanted to grow into a nice shaped tree in half. They were your framework.

Top tip with Bramley is to let them grow, the weight of fruit brings down branches like you would never think possible.

[Trailoftears]

To be honest, you've been a bit heavy-handed there at its age.Let it find its feet for a couple of seasons.Unless there was a grossly 'wrong' shoot growing straight into the heart,I would just leave youngsters like that alone to concentrate on growing.Apart from nipping an inch out of obviously strong upright leaders.Remember the old adage-you can always cut out whenever-what you cant do is put it back!I would think by shortening the framework/potential leaders rather harshly now-you'll get an explosion of lateral undesirable shoots from the cut back leaders-if so,rub them all off with your thumb apart from the terminal ones.Looking on the black side-you may have encouraged growth below the grafted variety,so beware of any  growth near the base of the tree.

[Trailoftears]

Looking again at your piccy-the 2 lower spindly horizontal shoots look surpless to requirements,but dont be tempted to cut them off flush with the trunk at this point.Leave 2" on each one for the mo.When you're creating/forming a standard/half standard tree the laterals are quite important in encouraging the trunk to thicken and mature,they can be taken off flush further down the line.

[Stere]

MM106 is a larger rootstock for a space thats looks maybe  abit  small or only just big enough from the photos so trees will grow big fairly  rapidly.

 

See the height scale 5m

 

 

 

I like the larger root stocks as trees normally  seem more robust & healthy & better roots anchoring mean they don't  keel over easily like the smaller ones

 

As peasgood said shouldn't of cut the tips off  as ideally you want them as the framwork for the tree like in pics.

 

"Open goblet" struture is what is recommended now they will branch but that can be fixed so no worry just dont cut the tips off again etc.

[Trailoftears]

On 04/04/2024 at 10:51, Stere said:

MM106 is a larger rootstock for a space thats looks maybe  abit  small or only just big enough from the photos so trees will grow big fairly  rapidly.

 

See the height scale 5m

 

 

 

I like the larger root stocks as trees normally  seem more robust & healthy & better roots anchoring mean they don't  keel over easily like the smaller ones

 

As peasgood said shouldn't of cut the tips off  as ideally you want them as the framwork for the tree like in pics.

 

"Open goblet" struture is what is recommended now they will branch but that can be fixed so no worry just dont cut the tips off again etc.

Really useful chart that, I'm looking to replace a rotten trellis structure that divides the ornamental/borders area from the working raised veg beds area with a couple of espalier apple trees to create a living fence divide between areas.So looking at that chart, I'm thinking the m9 rootstock looks perfect.Given the customers will want eating apples and they have russets already,can I pick any eating var,or do some vars do better on this constrained growth pattern?

As far as I understand it,summer pruning is better/leads to less uncontrolled regrowth on this system 🤔

[Peasgood]

You would struggle to get uncontrolled regrowth on an m9 no matter what you did to it.

If you are thinking of planting a few different varieties pick ones with a range of ripening dates. Something like Discovery for early fruit, Spartan maincrop and then maybe Melrose as a much later variety.

[Stere]

I have a spartan I bought from lidl a really healthy tree & a reliable  heavy crop, the apples always look pefect & blemish free, but I  don't like the  taste of them much for  eating & they store bad ,  I think they may be  good choice for apple juice though.

 

Almost like a gala supermarket apples as  in sweet but very bland flavour

 

RHS has a good guide:

 

 

https://www.rhs.org.uk/fruit/apples/starting-an-espalier

 

 

 

Edited April 10 by Stere

[Peasgood]

Nearly every professional apple grower I have ever asked what their favourite tasting apple was has said Spartan. I accept it may not be everyone's favourite but I am surprised to hear you don't like the taste.

A fully ripe Spartan fresh off the tree is unbeatable for flavour in my opinion. 

They don't taste as nice after being stored though.

As for storage qualities, I would class them as OK but not brilliant, for juice I struggle with them. They go soft too quick which makes them difficult to squash and no matter when you squash them they do not yield very well.

Having said that, this season I pressed some in late January which had been picked October and stored in an opensided barn. They were surprisingly good quality, hardly any rots and yielded reasonably well too.

[Paul in the woods]

4 hours ago, Stere said:

I have a spartan I bought from lidl a really healthy tree & a reliable  heavy crop, the apples always look pefect & blemish free, but I  don't like the  taste of them much for  eating & they store bad ,  I think they may be  good choice for apple juice though.

 

Are you sure it's Spartan, some of the cheap trees I bought don't match up with the varieties they should be.

 

It's a good apple to give to people and shouting "This is SPARTAN!" 

[Myatix]

Thank you Everyone for the feedback! Completely gutted that I shouldn’t have pruned them the way I have…  

I spent hours on YouTube trying to figure it out but I guess you can’t learn everything from YouTube.

is there anything I can do to save them or should I find some new trees??? 
I live in Denmark and was recommended an M106 root stock but sounds like it was bad advice???