[simonwatson]

When I moved into my current house, I inherited a mature apple tree. It's a Bramley's Seedling on either a semi vigorous or vigorous rootstock (I'm just guessing here judging by the height and spread of the tree).

The tree is terribly formed and rather than go through years of renewal pruning to get it into a 'best you can do' shape I want to basically start again. If I cut it right back to the main trunk and nothing else (the main trunk is about 4 feet tall), do you think I could effectively start again?

What I would do is cut it back next winter and let a lot of new shoots grow (it's going to have a big root system needing a lot of leaves. I'd pick the most upright growth to be the new main leader and prune that as a maiden. All the other growth I'd keep for a while just to support the tree while it's in this odd state, and once the main branches have started to take shape, get rid of them.

I'd appreciate your input on this,

Thanks

Simon

[Lardman]

I had a similar dilemma last year.

See http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=51923.0

In the end I cut the main leader down 1/3 - but if I had the chance Id have done what the old bloke next door suggested and cut it down 1ft about the main trunk.

Any pictures to help us ?

[simonwatson]

I'll post some pics when I get back from work. Thanks for the info.

[simonwatson]

Here's a couple of pictures of the tree in it current state. My main issues with it are:

The crown is too low
It growing lots of 'water sprouts' at the top of the crown

Any help or advice is appreciated.

[Trillium]

It's tempting to cut away more than 1/3 of the tree in one year but it puts a lot of stress on the tree. But all water sprouts can be cut away as it's only the main trunk and limbs that will struggle with heavy cutting back. And summer pruning is superior to winter pruning so that will also help shape up your tree along with the major shaping pruning.