Pruning apple tree: when & how to proceed?

Proceed carefully when pruning an apple tree. Prune the right shoots at the right time with our complete guide to apple tree pruning.

It is important to prune an apple tree to ensure that the tree is optimally supplied and that the harvest is as balanced as possible every year.

Why should you prune apple trees?

If you observe the growth of the apple tree (Malus), you can clearly see that it forms different types of shoots and branches: There are the long, richly leafed, "vegetative" shoots that hardly bear fruit. And the short, "generative", partly twisted and very old fruit shoots, on which flowers and fruits develop over several years in a row. Both types of shoots are important, because we humans want fruit-bearing, generative shoots for our apple harvest. But primarily the vegetative, leafy shoots carry out photosynthesis effectively and nourish the tree - they ultimately also allow the fruits to grow large and tasty. Balancing the growth of vegetative and generative shoots is the most important goal when pruning the apple tree. Incidentally, diseased branches are removed to prevent secondary infections and thin out the crown. This makes harvesting easier and also prevents diseases. In addition, fruit wood that is too old is removed and new fruit wood is created - because younger fruit wood produces more beautiful fruit.

Note: Discussions continue to flare up as to whether pruning is necessary at all. Apple trees are plants that have been heavily modified by breeding and are viable without human care, but are often affected by disease, small fruiting and stunted growth.

Pruning the apple tree: the right time

When can you prune apple trees? Many hobby gardeners know that apple trees are pruned in winter, between December and March. In addition, a summer cut can be made on the apple tree, but this has a different goal. what thatexactly means, see below.

Pruning apple tree in summer

The summer pruning of the apple tree is almost never carried out in the home garden, because it serves to optimize the harvest and thus comes from professional cultivation. Anyone who does not have to live from their apple trees will hardly reach for scissors in summer. Pruning the apple tree in summer ensures better light exposure of the fruit, which in turn results in a nicer coloring and a slightly better shelf life. He can also "soothe" fast-growing trees by limiting their energy source. For the sake of completeness, here are short instructions for summer pruning of apple trees:

• Only the late summer pruning, which takes place while the apples are ripe, is profitable for the home garden. The fruits should already be almost fully developed and are just waiting for their beautiful colouring. It is important that by this point in time the so-called Johanni instinct has already ended. This results in the months of July to September as the time window for the summer cut.
• Warning: Pruning too early in the summer can result in underdeveloped fruits.
• Remove or shorten individual shoots that shade fruit hanging on the tree. Don't cut off too many leafy branches or the apples may turn out less sweet.
• In the course of the summer pruning, old branches that are no longer fruit-bearing may also be completely removed.

Tip: Some apple tree varieties grow very strongly, while others are quieter. The summer pruning is only necessary for the strongly vegetative growing varieties. Trees that produce few vegetative shoots anyway should not be deprived of their few leafy branches in summer.

Pruning apple tree in winter

To prune the apple tree, the most important time is winter. With winter pruning from December to March, you have a good overview of which branches should give way thanks to the lack of foliage. Pruning in winter serves to build up, preserve or renew the crown.
By choosing the right point in time within the time window mentioned above, the response of the apple tree to the pruning can be influenced. Early winter pruning provides strong new growth, late winter pruning provides a weaker response.
We explain the different ones belowProcedures to help you have everything ready when pruning apple trees in winter.

Expert tip: Winter frost is not a major argument against winter pruning. As a rule, temperatures down to - 5 °C do not cause frost damage.

Pruning apple tree: Instructions

Now we know when and why the apple tree is best pruned. But how do you go about cutting the tree? Here we go into everything important about pruning apple trees in winter.

Note: A mistake that many hobby gardeners make again and again is the following - they try to shorten the height of a large apple tree and thus grow it smaller. Unfortunately, the growth strength is primarily dependent on the variety and the grafting base. Pruning strong-growing trees heavily leads to a strong reaction, i.e. to even more driving force. So cut counter-intuitively: fast-growing trees as little as possible, slow-growing more.

Recognize and judge fruit wood

The apple tree is usually in the garden for its fruit. These arise from the so-called fruit wood. These are short shoots that sit laterally on longer shoots and produce both flowers and some leaves. Fruit wood blossoms and bears fruit for several years in a row and always gets a few centimeters longer. Old fruitwood is twisted and particularly easy to spot. However, it only delivers small fruits. Young fruitwood arises laterally on perennial shoots and produces larger, he althier fruit. The aim of the pruning is also to provide new, young fruit wood and to remove old ones.

Pruning apple trees in winter: the most important things in brief

1. Choosing the right tool

The wrong tool when cutting can do more harm than good to the tree. In any case, the cutting tool should be sharp and the cutting surface should be as straight as possible. Then pruning shears, pruning saws, telescopic scissors and telescopic saws are suitable in principle and depending on the thickness of the branch for gentle apple tree pruning. Pruning shears are not required because they cannot be guided with sufficient accuracy. Motorized saws should be avoided if possible, as they leave frayed cut surfaces that are more difficult for the tree to overflow. Also get a sharp garden knife or a butt,which you can use to gently smooth the edges of large cut surfaces.

Basically: It is better to work with hand tools and a ladder than with telescopic tools. Because the cuts of the long tools are always imprecise and thus increase the risk of unwanted effects such as disease or increased sprouting of water shoots.

2. 3 pruning rules for the apple tree pruning

• The most important rule when pruning apple trees is that branches are usually cut "on a ring". A faint thickening can be seen at the base of each branch. A branch is removed directly above this. If too much stub is left standing, a number of side shoots will appear here in spring, which have to be painstakingly removed. If the branch is cut too low, the tree has difficulty overflowing the wound and the risk of fungal disease increases. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, which we mention below.

• It is just as important that the shoots of apple trees are usually not "cut". This means: Neither young nor old branches should simply be cut off somewhere along their length. Instead, a branch is either removed entirely or "derived". This means that you always cut off a branch just above the exit of a side branch. In this way - to put it simply - the energy of the tree is diverted to the desired branch. If, on the other hand, an apple tree is "cut", a number of side buds will sprout uncontrollably below the cutting point - most of which are then difficult to remove. So be sure to refrain from trimming the tops of your apple tree. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule.

• The higher and more vertical a branch grows, the stronger it will grow in the future. If an apple tree has one or more desired tops, it is important to maintain their dominance in order to prevent the uncontrolled budding of many side buds and to steer the tree towards more moderate growth overall. Make sure that the tips of your apple tree are always at the highest point of the branches. All side branches should be cut lower.

3.Branches that should definitely be removed

• First look out for dead or diseased branches - they must be removed in any case. Branches that are torn out, hollow or affected by fruit tree canker are cut off.
• Most of the branches growing into the crown of the tree are also removed. You can leave isolated shoots that are well garnished with fruit wood. However, strong branches that grow inward should definitely be removed early, before they cause excessive wounds.

Pruning on apple tree

• Important to balance the relationship between the significantly reduced root system (due to the cutting out) and the sprouting crown.
• Goal: Building the desired crown shape, e.g. funnel crown or pyramidal crown.
• Depending on the quality of the young apple tree, there may still be a few branches left. In order to have more shoots available for the crown structure, the tips of the existing branches are cut, i.e. simply pointed at the top. If shoots are too close together, crossing, or competing for the same space, individual shoots are removed entirely.

Pruning of young apple trees

• For apple trees up to approx. 10 years.
• Strong-growing trees are only pruned shortly before they sprout, weak-growing apple trees are pruned in winter.
Determine
• Leader(s): An apple tree with a central axis needs a top. This ensures that side branches do not sprout too much vegetatively. The leading drive must never be cut, but it can be diverted. Funnel crowns or other crown shapes may have multiple leaders.
• Determine side branches (main branches) that remain permanently in the crown and remove competitors at an early stage. Leading branches should emerge from the trunk at a rather shallow angle, but not quite horizontally.
• Prune out shoots and branches pointing steeply up or down that are not the leader but compete with it.
• Remove inward-growing shoots after 2 years at the latest - in the meantime you may still be able to harvest some fruit.
• Cut sparsely branched shoots if more branching is desired.
• Shorten the leading branches if necessary, diverting them to suitable side shoots.

Conservation pruning of adult apple trees

• For apple trees from approx. 10 years.
• Strong-growing trees are only pruned shortly before they sprout, weak-growing apple trees are pruned in winter.
• Lead shoot If necessary, divert to medium-growing shoots - this will slow down growth to a minimum.
• Main branches Derive to younger side branches with younger fruiting wood.
• Prune out dead, damaged and diseased branches.
• Always remove branches that are not leading.
• Mostly remove shoots that grow inwards - they can be left inside for harvesting apples for up to 2 years.
• Old branches that neither bear nourishing leaves nor plenty of fruit may give way in favor of younger twigs. Old branches can also be removed in the course of the summer pruning if they are particularly easy to recognize by their small fruits and the few new shoots.

Pruning the apple tree radically: the rejuvenation pruning

• The rejuvenation pruning is carried out on trees that hardly produce any new shoots and bear many small apples - the aim is that new fruiting wood develops. This may require cutting back a very old apple tree completely, leaving only a few branches.
• Winter is the right time to provoke the strongest possible reaction.
• Make sure the weather is dry and sunny so that any wounds that develop can be closed dry.
• In the next 2 years it can be expected that there will be fewer apples.
• Now you can cut your apple tree radically and completely remove diseased, damaged wood and particularly dense and old sections without new growth. Large wounds can be closed with wound closure.
• If the old tree has too few new shoots to draw on, it may exceptionally not be pruned "on a ring" but on "cones". When doing so, leave stubs that will hopefully give rise to new shoots.
• Wait and see how and where the old tree will sprout the following year and then use the existing shoots to grow a suitable crown again.
• You can also cut branches in the following years to provoke branching again.

Tip: If the old apple tree has no young shoots at all or if these would fall victim to the removal of other branches, then a pruning in stages is worthwhile: Pruning it in the first year very strong and leave him few branches. If it sprouts at the base in response next year, you can cut back the old part of the apple tree entirely. It is best to support such a weak-growing tree with additional fertilization: A primarily organic, nitrogen-rich fertilizer such as our Plantura organic universal fertilizer can be used annually in February. Its effect is delayed and comes just in time for the tree to sprout.

Recognizing and removing water shoots on apple trees

So-called water shoots on apple trees are the shoots that grow steeply upwards. They are mostly found inside the tree crown. The bark is usually much lighter and the wood is softer. With each cutting, the water shoots can be removed. If a tree that has not been pruned for a long time is severely pruned, many water shoots will form with the next new shoot. The best way to remove this is with a summer cut. Always cut off water shoots at the base, otherwise several new water shoots will emerge from a stub and the cutting work will increase. If they are in a good position on the branch, vertical shoots can also be bent down with weights or cords and thus made usable. Because almost horizontal branches are much more inclined to produce fruit wood and thus fruit.

The 'Merkur' apple variety is still relatively young. For hobby gardeners, however, it is already a worthwhile insider tip because of its robustness and good storability. 'Merkur' grows medium vigorously and is therefore rather easy to care for on average.