Proud owner of an apple tree - advice please!

[emmy1978]

I have a cooking apple tree in my new garden.  No-one has done any gardening in this garden for about 10 years so what to do with it? We had about a carrier and a half of fruit from it this year.
It looks healthy enough so do I just leave it or would it benefit from a prune? I've never had my own fruit tree before so I'm very pleased but I'm not the best at pruning having had very little experience. All my books give varying advice so I'm throwing it open to you guys!  :)

[emmy1978]

[Robert_Brenchley]

Depends. A carrier and a half from a small tree might be OK, from a large one it would be miserably little. A pic would help to judge the age of the tree.

[Froglegs]

If it looks healthy and your happy with its size why prune,do you know what variety it is,as some apples are not self-fertile and need more than one variety for cross pollination that may be why you only got a few apples,how big is the tree if it's on a dwarf root stock a carrier and a half could be a bumper crop.

[emmy1978]

I don't know why prune but some of my books (esp the older Percy Thrower ones) recommend hacking it half to death.  ??? It's not massive but it's not tiny either. I took some pics of the garden so I'll have a look if there's a good one of the tree. I don't know what variety it is unfortunately.

[GRACELAND]

not seeing it its hard to say but

i would cut out any crossing branches and dead or  sagged branches etc  :)

[Vinlander]

Bramley is the most popular cooker in the UK but if it's a Bramley then you need to take a bit of care pruning - they are partly/mainly tip bearing which means if you take the ends off all the branches you will get only half a normal crop, maybe less.

That's not so bad (full tip bearers are a pain) but it does mean an overall trim is the worst thing, whereas removing a small branch or so is OK.

Fortunately Bramley fruits are fairly recognisable - but in any doubt it would be best to look up 'how to prune a tip bearer'.

[emmy1978]

Ok, I don't know how to post pics and when the kids are in bed I'm on a mission to find out!
I don't think it's a Bramley, as you say Vinlander they are pretty recognisable. The apples have more of a golden colour really, some had spots of red.
Thanks for your responses.  :)

[Tee Gee]

Here is some ifo on apple culture; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Apples/Apples.htm

Use the related links as well and click on the pictures to enlarge!

[Digeroo]

I am hopeless at pruning, but tend to use the policy that if it is not flowering I cut it off.  I have several trees and a couple are getting rather big so I think I am doing it wrong.  Though I do get plenty of fruit.  But my bro in law who is a very enthusiastic pruner hardly has any fruit on his trees.

[manicscousers]

we do the Bob Flowerdew method, I think it was him..prune crossed ones and diseased out now, when the tree is in flower, we trim back to the flowers  ;D

[emmy1978]

Yes, I can do the cut out crossed ones! Thank Manics I've missed you.  :-*
Thanks for the link TeeGee, very helpful as your site always is. I don't want to mess about with it too much as it seems quite happy. I'm on a mission to post a pic now...

[emmy1978]

I took this yesterday as part of my 'before' pics. I had to brighten it up as it was really gloomy yesterday and you could barely see the tree in the photo!

[manicscousers]

thanks, Emmy  ;D
we've followed this method for a few years now, also do it on the pears, had brill harvests off them  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's obviously an old tree, which should, from the size of it, be yielding more than it is. I'd take drastic action, chop one of the two main branches this year, and the other in a couple of years, once new branches had started to grow.

[small]

We extended our garden and took over some old fruit trees. One of them bore cookers that sound very like yours, and the tree is a similar size and shape. Last year we must have had upwards of 200 apples from it, and this year about 20.  I'm assuming it may be one of those varieties that has good and poor years, so I wouldn't do anything too drastic yet. You can't unprune a tree.....

[saddad]

Biennial bearing can be a pig can't it Small....  :(

[emmy1978]

You can't unprune a tree.....

Ha! So true-exactly why I thought I'd ask! Thanks all, that's really helpful.  ;D