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Pruning large apple tree?

LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
in Fruit & veg
I need to prune and reduce the height of this cooking apple tree in my mothers garden. It's not been pruned for years and it's quite tall, with the best apples being right at the top. They are unreachable and end up falling, banging on the branches and then on the ground, causing them to bruise.

Whilst I can get up there with a ladder and use my loppers and reciprocating saw to cut the thick branches, is there a good method to use to encourage fruiting in future years?




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  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
    Thanks for the advice.

    Her other suggested alternative is to gut it down completely, but that would be a shame as it's a 50 year old tree.

    Could it be pruned to open it up so we have a fighting chance of getting to the apples?
  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
    Sounds like I should leave it alone then. It's a bit of a tangled mess, perhaps I could thin back some of the thiner branches amongst the centre of the tree and leave the main ones alone?
  • PlashingPlashing Posts: 328
    Why not get someone who knows how grafted it on a to smaller rootstock and plant it into a pot when it has taken you could do quite a few especially if it happens to be a brambly apple, because they are getting worried that they may become extinct in several years time. I am thinking about doing an eating apple that has grown from a pip, its growing like the clappers and the apples are nice eaten straight from the tree or they are very nice cooked, I use them cooked in apple cake and apple and ginger cake. They are causes on line about grafting you could maybe do it yourself long as you get the right rootstock.
  • PlashingPlashing Posts: 328
    I head it a while ago on a program referring t the original tree at Grantham saying that the tree was beginning to die because of its age and it was difficult to get the original cutting to graft, I think t was on Countryfile a year or so ago, I know there had been a debate about because of climate change, you know they will blame anything on climate change. I may have got mixed up now I am getting near my 80th birthday, Its nice to hear from you, I thought you had fled the country.
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Please don't cut it down. It is as you said an old tree and worth keeping.
    Ours is over 70 years old, maybe more, and yes the fruit does fall off but we do still use the fallen fruit.
    Please keep it as long as you can.
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    When the leaves fall off, I would just do a gentle prune of any branches that look diseased or crossing and rubbing on other branches.  I have a big apple tree. I pick them using a little bag on a long stick.  google

    Gardena 3110 Combisystem Fruit Picker



  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    edited June 2021
    I think you could give it some renovation but it's best to do major work in the winter dec/january. Here's a YouTube video you might find helpful.


    https://youtu.be/ObAjCBTgOoY
  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
    fidgetbones said:
    When the leaves fall off, I would just do a gentle prune of any branches that look diseased or crossing and rubbing on other branches.  I have a big apple tree. I pick them using a little bag on a long stick.  google

    Gardena 3110 Combisystem Fruit Picker



    Their Combi system looks good. Might buy the pole, saw and fruit picker. That way I can prune her tree in autumn and collect the fruit for her (she will then bake me an apple pie). Win win.
  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
    Bijdezee said:
    I think you could give it some renovation but it's best to do major work in the winter dec/january. Here's a YouTube video you might find helpful.


    https://youtu.be/ObAjCBTgOoY
    That's a useful video thanks. Whilst watching it I realise I had subscribed to him many years ago but had forgotten.
  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
    edited January 2022
    Well my mother has been insisting that the tree is cut down as she is fed up of not being able to get around it with the mower. She is also fed up with picking up fallen rotten apples every day.

    I have managed to get a stay of execution by agreeing to let me remove this lower branches that get in her way. Told her I will come round in autumn and pick the apples for her and pick up the fallen fruit.

    The plan is to give this a year to see how she gets on, so the tree is saved, for now.

    I'd like to prune and tidy it properly higher up, and encourage fruiting, but I need to read up on how to do this. Here are the before and after photos, I've made the cuts right back to the trunk yet as I can use the bits sticking out at foot holds to climb the tree....












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