"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
This is the wrong time of year for pruning apples. If there were fruits
on them last year, you may well get some this year too - even if they do
need pruning, fruiting can still be pretty good! (believe me - my apple
trees were pretty neglected too!)

Good - plenty of other stuff to be getting on with right now!
e.g. The nice "raised bed" has turned out to actually be a huge mass of old
bricks and rubble with an inch of soil cunningly covering it (which
explained why even the grass wasn't growing well on it!)

I'd pretty much leave them as they are for this year. Clear away any
suckers coming from the base, maybe give them a mulch and clear the base
of the trunks. Take the ivy off if it looks like it's going to
overwhelm the tree, (or if you don't like it), and chop off anything
that's clearly dead or diseased.

Chop back anything else that might be shading them - apples don't like
to be fighting for light, and just cutting back a shading hedge a bit
can make a big difference.

Righto.

Then this winter you can take out the crossing branches, branches that
go straight up, and branches that are just in the way to create a more
open structure.

Unfortunately, literally all the branches go straight up. They've really
got
that textbook overpruned look and I've got no idea if it's even possible to
develop them into a more desirable shape Dunno if anyone's
theory-of-pruning knowledge is up to the task?


Thanks for all the advice!