If you want to shorten thin lateral branches using heading cuts, make.

Pruning Apple Trees 3 When to Prune If you have a small orchard, delay pruning until it’s nearly spring. Allow for rain and bad weather, but plan to be finished pruning by May 1 or in time to begin spraying.

In many larger orchards, the pruning begins soon after harvest and continues through to spring. Old trees are pruned first and young trees are left until March and. Seedling apple trees should not require pruning during the juvenile phase of growth. This is because seedling vigour and the duration of the juvenile period are inversely related (Visser).

Anonymous Oct 4,

Feb 25, New apple trees. If you just planted your apple trees in the last couple of years, your pruning decisions now are important. They will determine the shape that the tree takes, and may influence how soon you get to harvest fruit. However, this should not take you very long, because you will not need to make many cuts. Find out more about pruning young or newly planted trees.

Finally, when it comes to flower buds, sometimes you may need to thin those out as well.

Jun 30, When pruning an apple tree, you’ll want to ensure you make pruning cuts in the right position. When removing a branch, always cut just after the end of the branch collar.

The branch collar is the ring of woody plant tissue where the branch of an apple tree meets the trunk. Jul 23, There are several points to consider when pruning an apple tree: distance from the central branch to a lateral branch before cutting, angle, leaving any water sprouts, shortening limbs or taking all the way down to the trunk of the apple tree, to name a few. On neglected or overly vigorous apple trees, prune.

Oct 07, The best time to prune apple trees is either late in the winter or early in the spring because that’s the time when the tree is entering a dormant state after shedding its leaves and before new buds appear. It’s best to complete the pruning just before the growth starts in.