pruning my apple tree

[Muriel]

i brought a patio apple tree from wilkos in the summer which i've planted into the ground.

So i'm wondering if I need to prune it this year. It has only got 2 branches.

Muriel

[littlemark]

Hi Muriel, from the number of branches it sounds as if you have a 1 or 2 year old tree. At this early stage any pruning is to establish the shape, or form of the tree that you are aiming for. This is a combination of practicalities with regard to the size of the tree and how much space you have to play with, and encouraging growth which is evenly spaced and has maximum light penetration to help ripen the fruit. A well formed fruit tree will also have plenty of space within the tree, and this will help prevent any possibility of fungal disease in later years. The basic 'naturalistic' forms are:

Pyramid (or centre leader) where the main trunk is encouraged to grow straight up with evenly spaced lateral branches growing along it's length. The pyramidal shape helps to ensure lower branches are not shaded by large upper branches. This form is popular where space is limited since you are encouraging the tree to grow upwards with plenty of fruiting branches.

Goblet (or open centre) where the main trunk is pruned to a convenient height and lateral branches are encouraged to grow outwards resembling an inverted umbrella. This is more space intensive as you are encouraging outward growth, but useful if having all the fruit at an easy picking height is important.

The more trained forms include Cordon (probably not appropriate if you've only got one tree), and Espalier which is excellent for producing a screen of fruiting branches, but can look a little unnatural to my eye.

It will soon be the time to Winter prune, and if you want to excercise some measure of control over the form of your tree you will certainly have to do some (minimal) pruning. A trip to the library is probably a good idea, RHS Pruning by Christopher Brickell shows how to prune for all the common forms. Of course you don't have to prune, your tree will grow happily and vigorously without it, but early shaping of the tree like this is often a good idea since it is much more difficult to correct problems of form later on.

Best of luck, Mark

[FB.]

Muriel.

Are you able to put up a picture, or describe the length and angle of the trunk and branches?
Do you know what rootstock it is grafted onto? M27? M9? M26? MM106?(!)
What final size and shape would you like it to be, in a few years time?
What variety of apple is it? Variety can influence optimum pruning.

If it's truly a patio apple, it is likely to be on a very slow growing rootstock, such as M27.
I find that M27 often needs almost no pruning at all (except for very vigorous varieties -Bramley-, or varieties with straggly branches -Laxton Superb or Tydeman's Late) and M27 can be quite stressed by a hard prune, especially if it is being grown in the soil, rather than well-fed in a pot.

There is no hurry to prune it right now, so make sure you're happy before you prune it - it will remain dormant until about March-May, so you have until late winter or early spring to decide whether and how to prune it.

[maytreefrannie]

Is it OK to prune an apple tree now or should it have been done before the frost?

We have an apple tree for years, never been pruned but I'd like to do it if I can - I might try following Littlemark's guidelines above - or are they just meant for really young trees?

Also, our tree is bent over from not being supported in its first year - the supports weren't strong enough and just bent with the wind. It gives a few apples each year, and by a few I mean, just a handful.

[FB.]

maytreefrannie

It would be helpful to see some pictures of your tree and (if possible) to find out what variety and what rootstock.

If your tree is several or more years old, the type of pruning required will be very different to a younger tree. Too much pruning could cause serious shock, or other unintended consequences, such as loss of fruit for a couple of season, or perhaps masses of spiky new re-growth from the pruning cuts.

If the tree produces lots of flowers but not many fruit, then either it needs a different variety nearby to pollinate the flowers, or perhaps it is suffereing from late frosts killing the flowers.

....oh and unless frosts are severe, pruning now won't hurt - so long as it has shed all it's leaves.
If frosts might be severe in your area in coming weeks, I'd wait until late February to prune.