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Originally Posted by Mook
I have an old apple tree in my garden which was there when we arrived.
It looks as though it has been neglected for 10+ years. It does crop
but the apples tend to be small - probably because there are too many
of them. The trunk kind of V's and my question is ... if I remove one
of the V's (about half the tree) would this kill the tree?
It would actually give the tree a better shape if I did this and I'm
hoping the apples (cookers) it produces would be bigger because there
would be less of them... any advice?
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You are able to hard prune an apple tree. If the tree is very overgrown it would be best to do this over a period of a few years. That said you can still take out one quarter to a third of all the growth at a time for very overgrown trees - not to be done on a regular basis! So go ahead and remove that limb out. What will happen is that you will get a lot of young shoots next year. You then need to prune those and leave a few that will become the new framework. Leave the pruning until winter, after the leaves have fallen, but when it is very cold, like a frosty day. This is the best time annd it is easier because you can see what you are doing.
Barry
www.barryholdsworth.com