When your apple tree is young you may wish to shape or direct its habit with winter pruning to encourage growth. Once it fills it’s space you can switch to summer pruning to slow growth and maintain the shape. See FRUIT TREE PRUNING GENERAL or check out our winter pruning seminars.
Spur Bearing vs. Tip Bearing
It is helpful to know what apple variety you have. If you don’t know what kind of tree just observe where fruit and flowers are held on the tree.
Spur Bearers:
Most of the apples we have are spur bearing, that means that they produce flower buds on little upright bits on the main stems that look a little like spurs and those little spurs will produce flowers/fruit there every year…unless you accidently rip them off when you are picking the apples, so be careful, twist don’t pull when you are picking. Some examples of spur bearers are Liberty, Macoun, Honeycrisp, Chehalis. Spur bearers are excellent subjects for Espalier-type pruning and training.
Tip-Bearers:
There are some trees out there that don’t fit this bill. They tend toward a more twiggy habit and their fruit and flowers are usually held at the tips of the branches giving them that almost cartoon apple shape where it looks like they are handing you the apples. These are tip-bearers. An example of a tip bearer is the venerable Golden Russet Apple. They do not appreciate espalier-type pruning and training and if you try to make them something they are not they will just make you frustrated and bereft of apples. Enjoy the upright open tree that they are and prune to maintain that open shape and encourage lots of air movement.
What if I have Dead, Diseased or Damaged Branches?
We call those the 3-D’s and we can remove those and any time of year.
Should I Use A Paint or Seal On The Pruning Cuts?
No. The tree or shrub will heal the pruning cut itself. Band-Aids are for people not trees. The paint or wax seal does not actually seal the wound, instead it makes a super nice, place for pests and disease to access the plant and prevents the plant from sealing off that section on its own.