Pruning a apple tree this time of the year

[new gardener 1052]

Hi all,
Over the weekend I ended up buying a potted apple tree (red falstaff on M26)
It was the last tree left in the garden centre therefore it had been reduced to £25 it a frank p Matthews. I've had a few FPM trees before and found them good so there ya go I bought it.

Anyway it's not the best shape of tree prob why the last one left, it has a couple of branches about 18-20" long really really thin way thinner than a pencil. They do have blossom but I don't think they would be strong enough to hold fruit,

What I'm asking is could I cut these branches to about half the size or should I leave them now?

[devonuk]

If it was me I'd de-blossom them immediately but not prune till winter, on the theory that pruning during growing season doesn't stimulate growth.

[new gardener 1052]

Would it not be OK to let the blossom flower but remove before fruit set?
I like the flowers on apple trees.

[boundtothesoil]

Would it not be OK to let the blossom flower but remove before fruit set?
I like the flowers on apple trees.

Yes. When you remove/pinch out a developing cluster of fruit at a very early stage you often find that a new vegetative shoot will emerge. This is often a good way of getting a variety which is producing too many fruiting buds at an early stage of its life to produce more vegetative growth and hence increase in size (eg Discovery). It also offers the advantage of you being able to choose exactly which flowering/fruiting clusters to remove, hence design the spatial distribution of the subsequent branching vegetative growth along the main shoots. Sometimes this can be an effective way of getting a new branch to develop in a particular position along the main stem.

[new gardener 1052]

Sorry boundtothesoil but you have lost me.
Should I let the tree flower or not?

[boundtothesoil]

Sorry boundtothesoil but you have lost me.
Should I let the tree flower or not?

It doesn't matter when you remove the flowers - either before they have opened or anytime up to a couple of weeks after the flowers have died. Either way you are not letting the fruit develop to maturity.

[Brack]

Thanks for this, I bought a self fertile Cox on M27 which I suspect was left over stock from last year. Tree is healthy but branches are much too long. I'll let it hopefully pollinate the other apple tree then pinch it out and support the branches until I can prune it properly.