How to Trim Apple Trees

Video transcription

How I'm Charles Boning author of Florida's Best Fruiting Plants. Today we are talking to you from Jene's Tropicals in St. Petersburg, Florida. The topic is how to trim an apple tree. When trimming an apple tree, you want to basically go with the central leader system. That means that the trunk extends from the ground all the way up through the center of the tree with horizontal branches extending outward at various intervals. When doing the central pruning system it will take several years before you achieve the overall shape of the tree that you are seeking. And the shape you are seeking is more or less like a conical kind of like a parameter shape. You want the sunlight to be able to reach all the different sides of the tree and all the fruiting branches. So that's the basic goal. Now most pruning of apples and other deciduous fruit trees is conducted over the late winter. This is the pruning where you do major shaping of the tree and training of the tree. After six or so years the shape of the tree should be pretty well established and at that point you can switch more to maintenance type pruning during the winter months. Occasionally during the summer you can also remove suckers, fast growing laterals, broken branches, that type of thing to keep the tree under control. That's the essentials of pruning an apple tree and I'm Charles Boning.