On Nov 27, 11:12 pm, Janet Tweedy wrote:
In article
,
Martin Bonner writes



It looks to me like it was hacked back a few years ago to the thick
branches. The hacked ends then sprouted lots of water shoots, and you
have lots of thin branches going everywhere.

That's what I thought Martin. I would have gone for taking those water
shoots back within one or two buds of the main frame, then take out
crossing and weak or diseased growth. (Only that way round because
getting rid of the water )
All the 'wobbly, knobbly ' twigs I would have pruned back to again, two
shoots on growth from the original prunings.

I was working on the basis that it's much easier to rectify
underpruning next year (just prune harder), than it is to fix
overpruning. I was also thinking that the OP wanted to avoid hacking
back too hard - otherwise he just ends up with a whole load of new
water shoots.

Still I probably am not giving good advice here so I'd better listen to
the experienced fruit pruners!

Of which I am /not/ one!

What I would recommend is the RHS book on pruning everything. I
managed to get three reasonable espalier apples and a fan-trained
peach with that.