How to Prune Apple Trees

In the past apples were trained into central leader shapes, having a central leader and evenly spaced out branches and stone fruit into vase shapes, however these days many people find the open vase shape easier to maintain and easier to harvest fruit.
In the home orchard the tree will produce plenty of fruit whichever type you use.

As Malus are often grafted or budded, care should be taken to remove suckers, especially those which emerge below the union. When fruiting, pruning is necessary to keep the tree open and prevent crowding. Branches may start drooping from the weight of the fruit. Cut the drooping part back to growth which is almost vertical.

Most apples fruit from spurs which are three to four year old short stems. A few types bear fruit at the tips of long stems and have fewer spurs. The former are known as 'spur bearers' and the latter as 'tip bearers'. Tip bearers make good espaliers and cordons whereas spur bearers are best kept as trees. The type of pruning needed to optimise fruit production will depend on which type of fruit bearer a particular tree is. Regardless of the type, pruning should be undertaken in mid to late winter since apples tend to produce buds in early spring.

Spur bearers need to be pruned by shortening lateral stems. This promotes the growth of spurs. Over successive years the spurs build up although they add smaller and smaller stems each year so they become quite stubby looking. After a number of years the spur system can become quite dense and needs thinning out. When thinning out, the most vigorous leaders are left alone otherwise even denser growth can result.

Tip bearers are pruned by cutting back some of the fruiting stems to a few buds or cut off completely. The remaining fruiting stems are left for several years and then cut to allow new growth to come through.

Larger established trees are often difficult to prune annually and so sometimes a limb is removed instead or a section of a branch. In these cases select branches which are relatively unproductive.

Apples which have been trained as espaliers or cordons can often also need some summer pruning to control shape. New shoots along the stems are cut back throughout the summer to about 15 to 20cm, but only when the base of these shoots is woody enough to withstand any winter frosts.