How to Prune Apple Trees in the Fall

Springtime flower buds on an apple tree.

Apple trees are beautiful ornamental trees that give bright color in the spring and tasty fruit in the late summer and early fall. From the first winter, pruning your apple tree is the single most important thing you can do to prevent unsightly growth and optimize fruit production. Preparing your apple tree for the dormant stage is a wonderful learning experience for children, and an enjoyable experience for all gardeners.

Things You'll Need

• Pruning shears
• Gloves

Instructions

1. Find the straightest, tallest branch that runs directly up in the center of the tree to become the leader. This limb will always be the highest, straightest branch and should never be cut completely out in favor of another branch. Cut away any competitor branches, right against the main trunk, that run directly upward within a 10 cm vertical range, as website The Weekend Gardener describes.

2. Decide on the other two to four scaffold branches, or subsequent limbs, to leave on the tree. These limbs should be distanced from the leader at 10 cm vertical intervals. It is best to use limbs that encircle the main trunk, creating a pyramidal or diamond shape when viewed from above. Cut out the other branches on the main trunk right against the trunk.

3. Trim down the leader to create a uniform, proportioned look throughout. Trim the scaffold branches to the same length at a 45 degree angle. This will prevent water from collecting on and within the wood, leading to rot and fungi problems.

4. Trim out any suckers that may have formed over the spring and summer. The sucker branch runs directly up from either the ground where it has developed from tree roots, or from a subsequent branch on the tree. Suckers grow toward sunlight and can become unsightly over time. Cut where the sucker meets the parent branch or directly at ground level.

5. Cut broken and damaged branches just above the nearest small bump that will later produce a branch, called a node. Continue with a 45 degree angle to prevent unnecessary diseases and stress.

6. Trim branches that cross or have began to grow backwards into the tree. Cut above the nearest node at a 45 degree angle.

Tips & Warnings

• If the tree is severely neglected, there may be many suckers growing from the base of the tree. Trim no more than 30 percent in one growing season or you risk wounding or even killing the tree from immense shock.

• In the following years, you will increase the amount of scaffold branches until the tree is full. Add no more than three to five branches each year, trimming out the excess limbs in late fall for winter preparation. On each scaffold, another set of smaller filler limbs will grow. Space these smaller limbs out equally and keep them at a uniform size as the main branches were in the beginning.

References

• The Weekend Gardener: How to prune apple trees