In article ,
Spider wrote:

If it really is that bad, then yes, choose a sunny day and do it as soon
as possible. If you don't, then winter winds will snap the branches and
Silver Leaf will enter the wounds anyway. ...

If it were right out in the open, then that would be a problem.
But it wouldn't have got like that if it were! It can wait, but
badly needs reshaping.

Oh dear! That sounds like a very confused tree .. and it's owner:~(. I

Yes :-(

can only suppose that the summer growth spurts you're seeing are delayed
responses to your winter pruning. Is it feasible to shorten these
growths to create fruiting wood? What isn't clear is whether your apple
is tip-bearing or spur-bearing, and this may be part of the trouble.
Depending on how desperate you are and how misshapen the tree is, it
might be an idea to spread your drastic lopping over 2 or 3 years, just
to see how the wood responds.

It's spur-bearing. I have tried the staged pruning, and it hasn't
worked. The killer is that it's never been very vigorous (which
surely must the the rootstock), and seems INCREDIBLY reluctant to
form more than one strong new growth a year. Given that it has
almost always been precisely where it is least appropriate, I have
been in a quandary ....

Hence I need a new tack.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.