Advice of pruning small apple trees please

theoretica

If a nearby Bramley is fruiting well I would take it as a likely indication there are enough trees nearby to pollinate yours too.  Though 'dwarf' doesn't help identify which pollination group it is in.

twopenny

No it's an old one in a neighbours garden. Think there is a little one in the next garden on from when I was viewing houses.

With eveyone indoors almost all day with the pouring rain and cold winds chatting is off the agenda.

RAS

twopenny, most grafters would do the work for free, fun, or transport plus a quid for materials.

Unfortunately the other Bramley trees in your area won't help pollinate your tree. You need two other trees that's around C flowering. But if one of the other Bramleys locally is fruiting well someone somewhere has the right pollinators in their garden. Any crab apples around?

DiggerUK

@twopenny, I would suggest you look out a tree pruning course at your local agricultural college, we went to Pershore College to do two courses. One was for summer pruning, and one was for winter pruning of fruit trees. 

It was a sort of holiday activity were you meet some right idiots, and others you remember fondly.

They did not recommend any pruning for seven years, beyond getting a 'shape' and taking out dead branches.
Also to avoid winter pruning whenever possible. Because it is cold and wet the trees are at their most vulnerable to fungal and viral infections, with the pruning cuts taking longer to dry and heal.  Pruning plums and cherries is to be avoided at all costs in winter.

The other trick they showed us was how to fan the trees  up a wall or fence, espalier. They recommended white walling to get the maximum sunshine on to the fruits, your position looks ideal for that. We use redundant rancid white emulsion mixed with whatever else is light, bright, scrounged or left over, it works a treat..._

 

twopenny

That's a really useful idea Digger, about the paint. It would especially help the one that's too much in the shade. I was working on shape and colour in a small garden to make it look larger which I achieved. However there is always a way around and I can make the branch area more reflective and keep the roots in the moist corner.

Yes, the plum and greengage summer pruning. Its those two that I've started a partial espalier and I'm finding they are perhaps a little too close to the fence now I have the garden made and growing.

Interesting about the apple trees too. Haven't heard that but it makes a lot of sense to only prune for shape until they have vigor, it's what you'd think naturally. It's just that all advice you read says one or two thirds.

I will wait for a dry, cold spell before pruning definitely.

It's not as scruffy as it looks in the photos - there is method in my madness. Stuff about to be moved to improve flowering now I am more familiar with the light levels. 

Zazen999

Hi. I know you asked a fair few weeks ago now, but just be aware that if you prune your Bramley the same way that you prune other apples, you will rarely get fruit as they fruit on the end not on the spur. End fruiting and Spur fruiting need different pruning, and yours are years away from either. In my experience it is hard to tame a Bramley in a small garden, as they really need space to do what they do. Whereas spur fruiting are better suited to being able to be trained into small spaces.

Also just beware that it may not even be a Bramley in the first place, even reputable stockists have sold me trees that are not what they were supposed to be, and it isn't until you get a crop years later that you find out.

twopenny

Thank you Zazen. I was looking at them today making plans but it's just so wet and warm that it's not been feesible to do anything yet.

I already regret planting them where I did but they were the first things to go in a completely vacant piece of land and it made sense at the time.

With the crops at least in the next stage is to replan the ground. Not easy when nurseries can't get the plants they order but have to have what's available and no open gardens to garner stuff so it will be a surprise garden to say the least.

Zazen999

If they are in the wrong place, move them sooner rather than later.

twopenny

Zazen I'm not sure I dare. I've had the fence come down on one thanks to my irritating neighbour so it was bare root, held under turf, planted, dug up, held under loose soil and replanted. I've already moved the Bramley and the Cox and the Greengage had to be replaced last Feb as I was given a Damson by mistake!

So they, and I, have had a rough time of it but we're all still surviving.

We'll see what a little winter sun and dry (if we ever get it) brings.