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Can we prune a crab apple now?

louise.whittington100louise.whittington100 Posts: 40
in Plants
We have an established crab apple which hasn't been pruned by it's previous owners for a long while with lots of water shoots and some crossing branches. Most advice says to prune when dormant (ie now) but after the chance of frosts (anybody's guess but surely not yet?) Can anyone clarify when to prune please?

Posts

  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355
    I had a bit of a hack at mine yesterday Louise🙂

    You should be fine doing it now - I would just avoid days when the forecast is for a really sharp frost in the next day or so. 
    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited February 2022
    I have chatted with @Mr. Vine Eye  eye about the timing of pruning. I got the impression that summer pruning was better for fruit bearing growth and winter pruning leads to water shoots.
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    Pruning in winter promotes growth and in summer restricts it, meaning better fruiting if done properly.

    It's a good time now to work out what you want to remove and is much easier if you have to remove whole branches. I took a branch from my crab apple a week or so ago because it was crossing growth but have left other pruning till the summer. You can tie string or ribbons around where you want to prune in summer, if you think it will be hard to picture when the leaves are on.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I presume 'water shoots' are the ones which grow straight up from the main branches.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    pansyface said:
    Yes, the result of over enthusiastic pruning.🙄

    Clearly not just from over enthusiastic pruning.  Our tree hasn't been pruned in about 9 years and there are masses of them.
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