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How to prune an apple tree in five simple steps

Pruning can be the cause of apple tree problems, but it can also provide the cure - read on for our complete guide on how to prune correctly - Jeff Gilbert
Pruning can be the cause of apple tree problems, but it can also provide the cure - read on for our complete guide on how to prune correctly - Jeff Gilbert

Apple trees are left in a sorry state by heavy-handed pruning and rampant re-growth, but this guide will leave your fruit tree happy and healthy

A lustrous green dome and branches heavy with rosy red fruit — that’s how an apple tree should look in August, but most garden trees fall well short of this orchard ideal. Too often, crops are disappointing, with fungally infected, distorted leaves and an outline as lopsided as one of Lady Gaga’s hats.

Heavy-handed pruning is the usual culprit for this sorry state of affairs, followed by a period of neglect during which the tree fights back with rampant, unbalanced regrowth. This emphasises the importance of buying an apple on the right rootstock in the first place — anything from M9 for very dwarfing to MM106 for a 15ft specimen.

Pruning is often the cause of the problem, but it can also provide the cure, bringing your apple tree back to health and productivity. Restorative pruning is usually done in winter, but, where crops are poor, there are advantages to doing it now.

With the leaves on the tree, it’s obvious what’s growing well and what’s dead. Removing the foliage also reduces the vigour of over-enthusiastic growers before they muscle beyond their bounds.

Don’t worry at this stage whether your tree produces fruit on spurs close to branches (spur-bearers) or on the tips (tip-bearers). This exercise is about creating a strong, productive framework, but bear in mind that on tip-bearers, some of next year’s crop may be lost. Most trees are spur-bearers, with a few notable exceptions, including 'Discovery’ and 'Bramley’, which are both tip and spur-bearing.

Follow this advice for branches up to 3in across — for anything larger, I’d advise calling in a tree surgeon with a chainsaw.

You will need ...

  • Chalk

  • Secateurs

  • Bucket for collecting mouldy fruit

  • Folding pruning saw handy as you can stick it in your back pocket while climbing the ladder

  • Or a carpenter’s wood saw more economical to buy than specialist pruning saws and man enough (when new) to handle large branches, but less wieldy when climbing the ladder

  • Ladder and short length of rope to secure to the tree

1. Prepare to prune

Lean your ladder into the tree, propping it so it sits without wobbling against a stout, healthy branch within easy reach of what you want to cut.

Loop a piece of rope twice around the rung closest to the branch and tie the ladder to the branch with a granny knot.

Standing on the ladder, have a good look up into the tree. You should see a vase-shape of branches emerging from the trunk, but on poorly pruned trees, there is also usually a mass of unproductive upright stems — epicormic growth – coming from the centre, and it’s these you want to remove, along with larger, obviously dead, diseased or crossing boughs. Their removal opens up the centre of the tree, allowing air to move freely through the foliage and fruit, which in turn reduces fungal infections like mildew and scab, that scar leaves and fruit with black blotches.

Mark the branches you want to get rid of with a piece of chalk. Before you cut, check from the ground that they are the right ones. This might seem overly cautious, but I’ve learnt the hard way that when you’re up in the tree, saw in hand, it’s all too easy to mix up the good with the bad and the ugly.

Toby Buckland gardening - Credit: Christopher Jones
First prop your ladder against the apple Credit: Christopher Jones

2. Start pruning

It’s always easier to work above what you’re cutting, so get to a comfortable rung for working. Select a bough and rather than tackling it all in one go, cut it off in sections so it’s easier to handle. My technique is to saw through the bark on the underside first, then cut down from the top, so if the bough breaks before fully sawn, there’s less risk of a strip of bark tearing away as the branch falls.

Work around the tree, moving the ladder as necessary, tying it on each time and dropping cut sections down close to the trunk to minimise damage to existing branches and fruit.

Toby Buckland gardening - Credit: Christopher Jones
When pruning, work around the tree Credit: Christopher Jones

3. The correct cut

The final cut on each unwanted bough needs to be alongside the “branch collar”, a raised ring of bark where the branch meets the trunk or intersects with another branch. Growth cells concentrate in these nodes, causing fast bark regrowth which seals the cuts and lessens the need for tree paints.

Toby Buckland gardening - Credit: Christopher Jones
Look above the branch you're cutting Credit: Christopher Jones

4. Whip out the secateurs

Next, it’s time to take your secateurs to those whippy upright epicormic wands. Focus on those sprouting from the trunk and the central branches, cutting them off completely. If there’s a gap in the canopy, say where a branch has snapped off, keep one or two of the strongest to grow and fill the gap. Then thin those growing on the ends of the branches by removing one in three to prevent congestion.

Toby Buckland gardening - Credit: Christopher Jones
Get busy with your secateurs Credit: Christopher Jones

5. Collect bad apples

While in the canopy, look out for and collect the brown, mummified fruits affected with brown rot fungus and bury deep in compost to prevent the fungus spreading to new crops or causing canker.

Toby Buckland gardening - Credit: Christopher Jones
Cast away rotting fruit Credit: Christopher Jones

The finished tree

Once you have finished pruning, you should have an open vase of branches with noticeably higher light levels and air circulation through the tree. The trunk will be clean and free of whippy shoots.