On 11/10/2016 21:57, David wrote:
On Mon, 10 Oct 2016 20:27:33 +0100, Roger Tonkin wrote:

In my new garden, there is an elderly apple tree that has obviously been
pruned severely at times in the past. It is still growing and produced a
reasonable crop of apples this year (although not that tasty!).

However there is a lot of dead wood on the tree at the tips of shoots,
although further down the shoots it is growing quite well.

There are a couple of pictures he

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/4453364959

I'm noy sure wthether to pune out the dead shoots completely or jsut cut
them back to just above a growing bit.

Help!

Note: I can see the thumbnails but the full picture won't load.

+1

My suggestion would be to cut out all the dead wood now whilst you can see
which it is.

After leaf fall you may not be able to tell.

Usually you can tell since dead wood is thinner and dry. But a novice
might well find it easier to tell while they are still in leaf.

Cut it back so you are into the growing bit; that is, take a bit of live
wood as well as all the dead wood.

Over winter you can then do any structural work to thin it out and open it
up as required.

Look at the cut ends to see if the living wood is infected; brown bits
amongst the light coloured wood. If so, cut back to clean wood
(remembering to disinfect your secateurs regularly if you are cutting into
infected wood).

Meths in a beaker is a reasonable disinfectant.

The alternative would be to wait for winter and cut all the shoots back by
about a third (assuming that this would cut out all the dead tips).

There is only a limited amount that you can do with old apple trees.

Though you can rejuvenate them by cutting out all dead wood and any
crossing branches as a first approximation. Perhaps spread over a couple
of years if you are nervous about taking too much off at once.

Any decent book on pruning fruit trees will explain when and how to
prune and the difference between spur and tip bearers. If you prune the
latter by chopping off all the ends you get almost no fruit!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown