pruning young apple trees

[fruitbat]

I planted a James Grieve and an Ambassy one year ago. I haven't yet pruned them.Is it too late this year - some of the leaves are starting to open, the trees are in the north pennines . The branches are very long and spindly and upright with very few side shoots, they don't look strong enough to support a crop.
Any advice would be most welcome.

[FB.]

They should have been pruned while dormant - usually December to February, but varies a bit with the seasons.
If you prune them now, some of their energy will be lost in the leaves which you cut off; they've just put their energy reserve into making the leaves and you come along and cut them off before the leaves have gathered summer sunlight to "pay back" the energy and nutrients required to build them.

You don't mention how old they were when planted, nor the rootstock (or the depth/fertility of your soil) as this would have a very big influence on what I'd do.
If you can answer the above, I can probably offer an alternate suggestion......

[fruitbat]

I bought them potted in winter 2010 from a garden centre so I'm not sure how old they were. The root stock is M26. They are on an allotment - good deep soil with plenty of manure added at the time of planting.

[FB.]

In that case, prune them as soon as possible; this weekend.

[fruitbat]

Thank you for your help, I'll get them done tomorrow.

[StephenH]

Check whether they're tip-bearers or partial tip-bearers before pruning. I didn't before pruning mine, and discovered later that two of them are partial tip-bearers, so I may have pruned away some of this year's crop!

[FB.]

Check whether they're tip-bearers or partial tip-bearers before pruning. I didn't before pruning mine, and discovered later that two of them are partial tip-bearers, so I may have pruned away some of this year's crop!

Yes, pruning without considering the bearing habit can result in considerably reduced crop, but for a young tree (which often drops its fruit before it is ripe, or produces poor quality fruit, or loses what little crop it has to pests) it is better to sacrifice some of the crop in the early years to get the right pruning done to ensure a good branch framework for the tree's mature years.

Mature, fully established trees which are only growing slowly tend to produce by far the best quality fruit. If the tree was shaped properly in its early years it saves a lot of pruning work in later years and the tree can remain attractive and productive for a lifetime.
But let it get out of control, or badly shaped in its early years and you'll spend half a lifetime trying to get it back into an attractive shape and good cropping.
Better to do it right, than later have to repeatedly put it right.

I've posted the following picture before, which shows how a well-pruned tree looks, and how it would look without pruning. I have included a sun and rays of sunlight to show how all the fruit on a well-pruned tree gets sunlight, whereas a badly pruned/neglected tree has a lot of fruit in the shade, which is usually small and poor quality.

[FB.]

Someone might say "so why not take the top off the overgrown tree".
Yes, you could do that, but the pruning wound(s) will be large and probably never heal. Eventually, the heartwood would rot and the tree becomes hollow and structurally weakened; perhaps splitting in half in a storm.
It is better to get rid of - or prune to redirect - future-troublesome branches before they exceed an inch in diameter and therefore the wound is small enough that there's a good chance the tree can heal it over before the heartwood gets invaded by wood-rotting fungi.