The basics of pruning an apple tree.

[@JeremyWhy]

Hey Pierson can you please do more “explain videos” like this and show things that you’ve already grown?

[@andyroubik5760]

This is one of the few videos about pruning that shows the pruner using the pruning shears correctly! always have the blade towards the portion you’re going to retain, not the anvil. Good job. The water sprouts that you pruned out initially were due to the tree being stressed from over pruning the previous year. If the tree was not able to produce these water sprouts it would starve to death. The best way to grow a 100 year tree is to grow it as a strong central leader and allow it to grow as large as its species or root stock allows. The typical scenario is the homeowner plants a semi dwarf fruit tree and spend the next 20 years trying to keep the tree small as the tree tries to fulfill its destiny. These trees are loaded with water sprouts. It’s like an ice storm hitting the tree every year. You can remove up to 20% of a tree in any given year, no portion of any tree should be removed without good reason. The more vegetation the tree has the more reserves It can stock up for next year. The more vegetation a tree has the larger the diameter will grow and subsequently be much stronger.

[@dashcongrl]

Is now the time to prune them? We’ve had two apple trees for 10 years and only get 1-2 apples.

[@PiersonW]

Before they leaf out in the spring if when you prune.