Apple pruning time.

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I seem to recall that the RHS say summer pruning should be in the third week of August and all laterals cut back to one leaf above the basal cluster. My experience is that if I prune at that time, the terminal bud, and sometimes the one behind it, will break and make an inch or two of growth before the tree goes dormant for the winter.

My solution is to prune to three leaves above the basal cluster in the third week of August, then to come back in three or four weeks time and reduce the shoots to one leaf. It has seemed to work, in that there are now good spur systems that produce plenty of flowers, though this year that has not resulted in a good fruit set, for reasons that are not clear.

There are in fact too many fruiting spurs and when I shorten the shoots further in a few weeks time, I will thin the spur system out to let more light and air in. The second tree is much the younger tree and had its first summer prune last year. I expect it to take a year or two before I get many fruiting spurs and a reasonable crop.

I set my phone camera up and did a time-lapse video of me pruning my two apple trees. For this first pass I don’t worry about the position of the pruning cuts; on the second pass I will be more careful to avoid leaving snags above the buds.

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Published by Jim Stephens

Gardener, no-dig allotmenteer, camellia enthusiast. I love colour, it cheers me up. Retired nurseryman.

16 thoughts on “Apple pruning time.”

  2. Wow! That was amazing! I’ve never heard of summer pruning. I was always told don’t even think about pruning fruit trees until late in the winter, like around February.

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  3. I just pruned my apple trees yesterday. Here in Massachusetts it’s a fine line between pruning too early and watching them immediately grow back as strong as ever, or too late and seeing them sulk until spring. The 2nd half of August seems to work best.

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  4. Summer pruning is one technique that I will never be comfortable with. It became a fad here years ago because those with very limited garden space thought they wanted to grow fruit trees. In the end, no one followed through with their intentions, and the fruit trees became just as overgrown and disfigured as they always do within gardens of those who do not really do gardening. I grew up in the Santa Clara Valley, so will always prune the fruit trees during their winter dormancy.

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    1. Good intentions and no follow-up sums it up. Those with limited space includes me, in my eyes anyway. I could grow three or four full sized apple trees but there wouldn’t be room for much else. I rather think I planted a few apple trees thinking I wouldn’t need to do anything to them for at least a couple of years, by which time I would have found out what I needed to do. When I looked into summer pruning it was all in relation to trained forms like espaliers, cordons, fans and so on. I couldn’t see any reason why it would work on one shape and not on another, so I jumped right in and pruned them according to the method and timing in the book. Then I watched what happened and when it didn’t quite work out as it should have, I modified my method a little to compensate. It has to be timed about right and you can’t take a year out, but essentially it’s a simple and quick method that has generally given me what I want; a tree of restricted size that fruits well. I can see that people might do it once, not get much of a crop because it takes a couple of years for fruiting spurs to build up, so give up. I can see how someone might not get good results and not know how to change what they were doing to make a difference. It’s not like the rules of pruning are anything more than what one lot of people found to work, and passed on. There are no sanctions for breaking them.

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      1. Even those who are willing to monitor their fruit trees do not stay in their home long enough for trees to mature. Unfortunately, that is part of the culture here and in Southern California. People move here and there for work, and then move away as soon as they are able to, leaving fruit trees after only a few seasons. While I was still working for arborists and landscape designers, many clients wanted trees that grew up big and fast, so that they could enjoy them while they lived with them, but had no concern for those who would live with the trees after they moved away. Hybrid poplars were commonly planted in tiny patio areas of condominiums.

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      2. Sounds familiar. They want something fast growing so they get the effect they want quickly, then want it to stop growing. They don’t want slow growing because they don’t want to wait, they don’t want fast growing because the ultimate size scares them to death. Unless they’re planning to move out from the day they move in.

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      3. That is how most people here are. No one expects to stay here or in the Los Angeles region for long. It is infuriating for those of us who are native, but can not afford to live here because of everyone else who wants to come here, but has no interest in the culture or Community.

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  6. Great video ! Thanks for sharing. Here in France, books and websites tell us that we must prune fruit trees (apple and pear trees) until the end of July but not after. I don’t know why there is a difference compared to you. Nevertheless I did it this week …and therefore late. In my case, I cut half of each stem. Which leaves 7 or 8 buds and I will cut again this winter to 2 buds

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