Reply With QuoteApple trees are programmed to eventually grow out of control until you’re forced to replace them with a new one.
My recommendation would be to get an Android tree.
Morning all. I’ve recently moved and we have three rather lovely apple trees in the garden. I’m guessing they are generally healthy as they are absolutely full of fruit (the Mrs has gone crumble crazy already).
However they do look like they could do with a prune. I know there are plenty of videos and information online but I was hoping for some general advice from anyone here who might have tackled this in the past. Is it better to get someone in to deal with this sort of job? I would hate to inadvertently damage the trees. I’m based in North Herts.
Any advice / recommendations gratefully received!
Apple trees are programmed to eventually grow out of control until you’re forced to replace them with a new one.
My recommendation would be to get an Android tree.
We have two so-called apple trees and plum tree. Been in for 9 years!! We have had nada fruit from any of the three. Wife reckons it’s cos they’re next to the fence?? I wish I had your challenge 😥Originally Posted by Peck
We just call them ‘trees’ now.
Jim
Sorry to hear that Jim… I’m definitely in the opposite boat!
You usually need two different apple trees to pollinate the flowers, which lead to apples. Maybe your two trees came from the same stock. I suggest you pick up a B&Q cheapy like we did £15 from memory or even less as they are selling them off now. Plant it close to the two trees and the pollenating insects will do the rest.
Turning to mature pruning , there are too times to prune an apple tree, Summer and winter pruning. One does shape ( which is supposed to be like a cup allowing sun at the fruit). The second is to remove excess new growth as they fruit on last years growth. Google RhS gardening or similar.
I have two small trees both less than 4 years old so Im still learning
Watch you dont pick up American pruning videos as their climate and seasons are very different to ours.
We have two pear trees ( different varieties ) , two apple trees and a plum tree, the only pruning I have done is in the winter I take off the previous summers growth, it seems to work, this year the plum tree had so much fruit it broke off a bough due to the weight of fruit, I do wonder if that will cause it problems down the line and if I should treat the 'wound' with anything. Plums are fickle, some years we have just a handful of fruit, the next its absolutely stacked. Weather conditions I guess.
Cheers..
Jase
OP. This should help: https://www.rhs.org.uk/fruit/apples/pruning-made-easy
my wife has been a fruit and veg grower all her life (28y In the UK and now PT) I’ll ask her. I just dig the holes.
“ Ford... you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.” HHGTTG
I'm another amateur feeling his way through the joys of fruit tree ownership.
The only thing I can offer is one of the pitfalls is that one of the many groups that Apple trees can be arranged is whether they fruit on fruiting spurs off the branches or off the tips of recent growth. I happily pruned away for a couple of years without much reward and belatedly realised that I was chopping off most of the bits which would produce the fruit.
I only ever prune in Jan-Feb before the sap starts rising again and aim to shorten branches to control the size and chop out any which cross over to open up the crown to allow light and air through it. There might be more specific advice for more mature trees as your appear to be. As previously mentioned the RHS website is a good start.
One thing to keep an eye out for is local Apple Days which will happen up over the next couple of months, they usually have experts who will be able to identify which varieties you have. Some events have a press which will press your apples to make juice.
I’d say get a pro to do it, watch and learn.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Thank you all for your comments - very helpful indeed
Plums are notorious for splitting under the weight of their fruit. You can paint the wound with a wound seal. Keeping it well pruned may prevent it splitting in future; if starting from scratch, then growing the tree as a fan, with branches tied to supports, should stop the splitting and keep growth in check.
Late frosts in April and May, when fruit trees are in blossom, can have a severe impact on the yield. If the tree is small enough, then cover it with gardening fleece when a frost is forecasted.
Thanks Tatters.
Cheers..
Jase
Modern thinking is to let the wound heal itself, ideally trimming it to give a clean, flush edge.
LOL. Thanks Peck and others.Sorry to hear that Jim… I’m definitely in the opposite boat!
I’m not green fingered at all so Mrs McB does the fine bits whilst I do the grafting stuff.
From reading here I think I’ve not done things right at all. Thanks all
Jim
We have an apple tree, there are no others as far as the eye can see yet we get hundreds of apples every year. We give them away, make crumbles (have just this minute had apple crumble and custard in fact) and dozens just fall to the ground and the local animals eat them. I never trim it or do anything to it so I can’t help on that front.
What I can say is that we have 2 plumb trees, 3 damson trees, 2 pair trees, a cherry tree and 2 peach. Many of the trees where growing into each other and didn’t produce fruit, a couple of years ago a local gardener told us if they are touching other trees they won’t produce so I cut them back leaving a good meter between any tree and it’s neighbour. Since then we get loads of fruit from them. Must be something in it.
I’m gonna do as you do - leave them alone! Watch this space next year
J
A few apple varieties are self fertile, e.g. red Windsor.
I think it was Monty Don on a tv programme I was watching once who said that pruning apple trees should be done so that it’s nice and open and that a pigeon could easily fly through it with minimum change of course!
Seems to have worked for me over the years, just in the process of picking boxes and boxes of apples off the trees. 👍
I once heard of apple trees that you should be able to take off your hat and throw it through the middle. I would say thats probably more appropriate to plums than apples but there you are, at least you should understand the concept of allowing for light and space in the centre of the tree.
Apples fruit on older wood, i.e. not the current growth, so you can feel free to cut back long weak growth. Cut out any branches that are crossing. Any branches growing into the middle of the tree, and any branches that are too low.
Most growers set a final height which is determined by how high they are prepared to reach to harvest. In my case I can get to about 12 feet; any higher and it becomes unmanageable.
Most trees are grafted onto dwarfing rootstock so try and find where the graft is and any growth coming out below that, including root suckers needs to come out.
Learn about pests and diseases, feeding, and thinning. Good luck.
I spoke to an English guy who made a living in Spain as a gardener about 5 years ago. I had just bought a villa that had orange and lemon trees with small fruit and lots of healthy green leaves on very high branches and they served no purpose at all.
He told me that nearly all fruit trees (including apples) needed to be kept to a height where you could pick the fruit easily from the top branch and he also made the same comment previously made that the tree should have no branches in the centre and birds should be able to fly through it. The fruit thrives on light.
So I carried out his advice which as follow.
Wait for the wife to visit her hair dresser or something similar.
Get your bow saw out and prune right back to the main branches so the tree is no more than six foot high. This will be brutal.
Wait for the wife to come back in the full knowledge that she will go ballistic - which she did. She told me I was a butcher etc and that I had all but murdered her trees.
Next year you can expect leafy growth but prune the new growth back to about 6ft-7ft high. You will get some fruit but less than the previous year.
Next year the tree will produce cartloads of fruit which mine did and we did the usual thing of leaving them outside the house for anyone to take away. The advantage of keeping the tree low in height was that you don't need to climb up ladders to pick the top fruit.
From now on we just prune the fruitful branches back to 6ft high, so we have fewer but very abundant branches and the centre is kept open. The fruit will come from the flowers but it does take some courage to prune branches that gave good fruit the previous year.
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