IanW wrote:

: The apple tree in my garden gave a good crop this year, but it's spreading
: out a bit too much. I reckon several branches could do with cutting back by
: between 1 & 3 feet. Is it as simple as just chopping the branches back to
: where I want, or is there a particular part of the branch one should chop?

I'd wait until the tree is dormant - leaves all fallen etc. I usually do
my big pruning in Jan/Feb

Big largish branches you can probably just cut back - I'd suggest to
back to more than you need, to allow 1/2 new shoots to grow out and form
new branches. These will be pretty productive in the coming years.

Try and imagine where you want the new growth to go and angle the cut in
that direction and sloping so that the cut surface is protected from rain
a bit.

The big problem with big cuts is that in spring there will be loats and
lots of vigorous new shoots sprout up. Most of the these need to removed
by "rubbing" out very early on, leaving one or 2 to grow into replacement
branches in the right direction.