Pruning Apple Trees

It's the season to prune Apple trees ,so far this year it has been mild, wet and windy, with few frosts or sub zero temperatures in the southeast. Despite this  the trees are now completely dormant.

 I started off this year In the garden some friends who supply me with apples for pressing cider.They have  two vigorous trees,a Bramley type cooker and a cox type eater , both probably about 60 years old.

This is the cooking apple tree was pruned back hard about 7 years ago and has not been touched since. It has got congested and grown to tall for easy picking of the fruit. I took out lots of the branches in the middle of the tree and reduced the height to a more manageable size. With additional formative pruning next winter an attractive practical shape can be maintained .

The younger wood (7 year old). should heal quickly and sprout new shoots in the spring, I  left some buds to flower and fruit , but it will take  at least a couple of years to get back into full fruit production.

Above this cox like eating apple tree has not produced a lot of fruit in this garden probably because it is partnered with a Bramley which is at triploid, so after a good trim this year I might graft another variety or two on this tree to increase pollination.

Above a similar treatment is given to this eating apple tree.