[Candide]

Getting comments from plot secretary about this Bramley being too tall and too wide.  It's been left alone for maybe 10 years or more.  Someone gave the top a haircut a while back which produced water shoots;  cut them back over the summer.  However, seems that this is not enough and comments about felling it completely have been made.
It's obviously on a dwarf rootstock of some kind but trunk and main branches are still quite hefty.  My limited understanding is that winter pruning for serious cut backs is the thing, but also this stimulates growth.
What think fruit people?  I could chop off a couple of branches to halfway, then repeat next year I suppose but would like some guidance please

[Lardman]

Picture ?

It's pointless turning it into a lollipop on a stick, depending on how it's been pruned originally you should be able to bring it back under control within 3 seasons without doing anything too drastic.

[Kleftiwallah]

So (ooops sorry)!  why are "Those in authority saying its too big, are they jealous?   

Cheers,  Tony.

[Candide]

I'm another Tony....too big according to allotment rules and regs which I haven't looked at - all in the small print complete with max height and spread

[Growster...]

I guess it comes down to how many Bramleys you really want to keep.

Our little chap gave us ten this year, and we'd like a few more, but he/she is only five years old and has arms like a spider, so answering your question, I'd say that if you can get - say thirty/forty decent apples off your tree after a haircut, wouldn't that be enough?

[Snowboar]

Could be totally wrong here but I find pruning in summer slows it and pruning in winter speeds growth might be my imagination cause I just wing it my apple tree