How to prune an apple tree

Video by Gardeners' World. This guide is based on the video "How to Prune an Apple Tree" from the Gardeners' World YouTube channel. It covers winter pruning of a free-standing apple tree step by step, and is well worth watching before you pick up the secateurs — particularly the sections on identifying fruiting spurs and deciding which crossing branches to remove first.

1. Time it right — winter is the window

Prune apple trees when they are dormant, from November through to late February. The leaves are off, you can see exactly what you are dealing with, and the tree is not actively growing, so the cuts heal cleanly. Avoid pruning during a hard frost — frozen wood is more likely to split, and open wounds in icy weather can let disease in.

If you have an apple tree that is also a bit congested but you are not sure how bad the situation is, wait until late January or early February. By then any dead or diseased wood stands out clearly against the healthy bark, and you will not be tempted to cut into something that still had life in it.

2. Get your tools sharp and clean

You need sharp secateurs for anything up to about the thickness of a thumb, a pair of loppers for medium branches, and a pruning saw for anything thicker than that. Blunt tools crush and tear rather than cut, leaving ragged wounds that are slow to heal and more likely to become entry points for canker or other fungal problems.

Wipe the blades with a cloth dampened with methylated spirit before you start, and again if you cut into obviously diseased wood. It only takes a minute and stops you spreading disease from one cut to the next. That said, do not bother with wound sealant paste on the cuts — modern advice is that it does not help and can actually trap moisture against the wood.

3. Remove the dead, damaged, and diseased wood first

Start by walking around the tree and identifying anything that is clearly dead (brittle, grey, no buds), diseased (sunken dark patches, canker, unusual bark texture), or damaged (split or broken from wind or the weight of fruit). Cut all of it back to clean, healthy wood — you will see the difference immediately as healthy wood shows a pale cream or greenish ring when you make the cut.

Do not leave stubs. Cut back to a branch junction or a healthy outward-facing bud, making the cut at a slight angle so rain drains away from the bud rather than sitting on it. Stubs die back and become entry points for rot. This first stage alone can make a big difference to a neglected tree.

4. Open up the centre of the tree

The aim of apple tree pruning is a goblet shape — an open centre with main branches fanning outward and upward, letting light into the middle of the canopy. Branches crossing through the centre shade the fruiting wood and rub against each other, which wounds the bark. Take out crossing branches, prioritising those that are heading into the middle of the tree or growing straight down.

You do not need to gut the tree to achieve this. Removing two or three well-chosen branches can make a dramatic difference. The rule of thumb is to take no more than about a fifth of the total canopy in any one winter — spread bigger renovation jobs over two or three years rather than cutting back hard all at once, which tends to produce a mass of vigorous, non-fruiting regrowth called watershoots.

5. Shorten the main branches and side shoots

On established trees, the main branches — the scaffold branches that radiate from the trunk — can be shortened by around a quarter to a third of their previous season's growth. Cut to an outward-facing bud or a well-positioned side branch. This encourages branching lower down and keeps the tree at a manageable height over time.

Side shoots, or laterals, are where most of the fruit forms on spur-bearing varieties like Cox or Bramley. Shorten these back to about three or four buds. The short, stubby clusters of buds along older wood are the fruiting spurs — treat these carefully and try not to remove them unnecessarily. It depends on the variety, but tip-bearing trees (like Discovery) carry fruit at the branch ends, so prune those lightly and differently.

6. Clear up and dispose of the prunings

Bag up or shred any prunings that show signs of disease — canker, powdery mildew, or rot. Do not put diseased material on the compost heap; bin it or burn it if your local authority permits. Healthy prunings can go through a shredder and make decent mulch for around the base of the tree, though keep mulch a few centimetres clear of the trunk itself to avoid collar rot.

Once the job is done, give the tree a feed in early spring with a general-purpose fruit fertiliser and a mulch of well-rotted compost or bark chippings around the root zone. It is tempting to think the pruning alone will sort everything, but feeding the roots and keeping the soil in good condition is what really drives a good harvest.

When to call a handyman

Call Richard if the tree is large and the main branches need a pruning saw at height — working up a ladder with a saw wants a bit of care, and an extra pair of hands to steady things and pass tools up makes the job safer and quicker. Heavily neglected trees with major dead limbs, or trees that have clearly suffered from canker through much of the main framework, may also need an assessment before you start cutting to work out whether renovation over several years is practical.