Apple flowers.

[Gollum]

Ah well, here's a pic of what mine do.

Above the red line is last years growth, pic taken this afternoon.

 

 

The problem with 106 is the vigour they grow with.

The picture you have posted is a good and clear example of strong growth one year old wood.

this type of wood will never give tip bearing blooms,

How ever if you tied them down then they would.

strong upright growth on Bramleys will not produce fruit for a long time.

[Peasgood]

But it wouldn't be strong upright growth for long, the weight of the crop brings them down just right, and I don't just mean while the crop is on them.

 

Besides all that, the OP should have flowers by now.

[Graham]

Hope you can see well enough from these pics. There's certainly strong upright growth!

 

 

[agg221]

That isn't as bad as I'd feared to be honest. There are some nicely developing laterals in a few places and although there are too many uprights they're slowing down enough to have some side growth. I reckon with the removal of a few of the most upright ones, tying down of others this should be fairly straightforward to get back into bearing.

 

I've been doing something similar to one, so I'll take a picture next time I'm there (in a few weeks).

 

In the meantime, some of the info here (and the image of Peasgood's tree on the following page) may help give the general idea:

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/52999-having-go-pruning-fruit-trees-anyone-interested-5.html

 

Alec

[Graham]

Link is interesting. Tried to get better pics but to no avail. Looking forward to having a go at this now:001_smile:

[agg221]

OK, I've tried to draw up something to give the general idea of what I'm talking about.

 

Red lines show areas to be taking things out - this is based on there either being an obvious very vigorous upright growing shoot, or the general area being too congested in which case lose the most vigorous, most upright shoot(s). You don't need to make that many cuts - 10-20 on the whole tree this year, similar numbers next winter.

 

Green lines show the sort of thing you want to encourage. These bits want leaving alone

 

Orange lines show branches which can be brought down, and how far I would bring them. Note, these are possible framework branches. There are more shoots that furnish the branches and would benefit from similar treatment - use the smaller, weaker ones for this and treat them the same way.

 

You are likely to need to use the cutting technique shown on the link to get them to come down neatly. You don't need to do the whole lot at once - if you run half a dozen strings down to the trunk and do a batch, then once they've set to a lower position (Mark reckons six weeks in the growing season) then you can move the strings on to the next batch.

 

Another link that might be interesting is here:

 

http://frontpage.woodland-trust.org.uk/ancient-tree-forum/atfscapes/images/RestoringFruitTrees.pdf

 

The pictures give a good sense of what you can aim for - in your case the previous hard pruning means you're going through a different set of steps but the shape in the last two pictures is about where you should end up, without the tree taking over the whole garden!

 

Alec

[Langur]

There are some nicely developing laterals in a few places and although there are too many uprights they're slowing down enough to have some side growth. I reckon with the removal of a few of the most upright ones, tying down of others this should be fairly straightforward to get back into bearing.

 

 

I agree. Whether you're gonna tye them down or not, reduce it in the summer.

Less sprouts will come out next year and you'll have less trouble.

Most important: be patient.

[agg221]

Helps if I add the picture:

[Graham]

Thanks for your help and the pic. I'll post a pic after pruning.

[Peasgood]

Well I can't help pointing out that nearly every single shoot on the tree is like the one I posted a pic of

 

Very basic and simplified advice is take off all vertical shoots and any that do not radiate away from the main trunk.

A general rule is the more you cut off the more it will grow. Finding the balance is the art.

Looks a nice tree, enjoy it for what it is.