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!

 

[MattyF]

Root stock would be fine, probably not a bad choice at all , personally now I would not touch them for 4-5 years so they find there feet and develop fruiting spurs.. then work from there. 

[peds]

They look very similar to a bunch of trees I grafted and planted along my laneway that were then pruned by a few horses the neighbouring farmer had wandering around when he was moving them, before I added a bit more protection. It's not ideal, but they seem to be coping well enough. 

As MattyF suggests, I'm going to ignore them for a couple of years and take it from there.

[Dan Maynard]

If you like YouTube these videos are old but I still haven't seen anyone explaining apple pruning step by step better than this guy. This video starts with a careful look at the different buds on different age wood, which is one of the first things to understand - I see so many trees where people 'clean up' all the sprouts every year.

 

https://youtu.be/Q_jqgWXlUHM?si=arof4ay7cbI98VBv

[sime42]

Thanks for that. It looks like a great source of useful knowledge. Also, the guy seems to do videos on lots of other stuff, not just fruit tree pruning. Nice.