Mature apple tree pruning

[Hank]

Hi guys, hope everyone is doing well. I looked at a few pruning topics but couldn't find anything that really answered my questions (although I did pick up a ton of good info).

 

Some friends of mine have this mature apple tree in their garden which they love, it provides them with a good crop of cooking apples every year and is a feature of their garden. They want to prune it which I said I was happy to do but I just want to get the balance right.

 

My plan so far is to open up the middle a bit, remove dead and crossing/inward/vertical branches. Is there anything else I should be looking at? Some of the shoots are fairly chunky now, should I be reducing their number or focusing more on smaller branches/shoots? I'm looking at removing about 20% of the canopy overall.

 

Thank you!

[Steven P]

If you are planning to take a fir bit off go slower an over a couple of years else fruit trees will send up a lot of new growth to compensate - 20% sounds about right.

 

I would start with looking at the crossing over bits taking out anything touching another branch then step back to take a look, see how much you have taken off with that.

 

Also while you are there anything that is dead.

 

If it was mine the next step would be to take it down a bit from the top and bring in some of the longer horizontal ones (the thinner ones going left to right in the first picture) and leave it at that for this year. Next year see how it responds, what new growth it sends up then have a look at clearing some space and opening it up a bit. However some apple trees thrive and produce good crops with a more closed in centre.... opening it up might produce fewer larger apples - I know my boys prefer many smaller apples though.

Edited 14 hours ago by Steven P

[Muddy42]

Yes to all of the above, remove dead or crossing branches plus do the reduction over a few years.  The only other thing is have a mind towards making it easier to pick the apples and bring the fruit down to safe ladder height.  Pruning apple trees is pretty personal.  As well as the pruning described above, I'd maybe just cut back one or two of the big trunks per year. I'm on year three of doing exactly this to two Bramleys apple trees. The trees have survived, yes fruiting has reduced because you don't get apples on new growth, but I don't mind that.

[Stere]

Looks like it was pruned very heavily about 4yrs  back  and sent up a load of growth then  has not being touched since.

 

Id thin  out   that growth back to the same prune points and  then also shorten some of the  the longer  ones.

 

Also it  a bit all on top and bare at the sides so leave some stuff to full out the sides

[Hank]

This is all great info thank you. I had planned on reducing the height a bit while maintaining the outward spread so it's good to be on the right track there.

 

The owner was saying that while they had a really good crop last year, they also had lots more piddly little apples compared to other years. Could that be because of the lack of pruning or perhaps that's just how it was last year...?

 

They've been in that house about 5 years now and I'm pretty sure they haven't touched the tree in that time.

 

Thanks again.

[Dan Maynard]

1 hour ago, Hank said:

Could that be because of the lack of pruning or perhaps that's just how it was last year...?

I don't think there's been a normal fruiting weather year for about 5 years, it's a lottery.

[sime42]

2 hours ago, Hank said:

 

 

The owner was saying that while they had a really good crop last year, they also had lots more piddly little apples compared to other years. Could that be because of the lack of pruning or perhaps that's just how it was last year...?

 

 

 

 

A bit of both I expect.

 

 

[Steven P]

Ours tend to go in phases, last year for us was a good crop... of windfalls given the storms that passed through, the year before about half as many

[sime42]

Might be Biennial Cropping. Some varieties are more prone to it. One of ours does it, it's a bit annoying. Laxton’s Superb I think it is. Lovely big tasty apple, every two years!