Quote:
Originally Posted by RiversideRed
Our orchard in Northumberland, which has around 40 various apple trees,
along with a lot of stories
or lack of fruit in the North and other areas, our trees produced 1 apple.
Question, as I prune each year, should I rest them or prune as normal.
Usually late January.
Thanks Mike. Near Hexham.
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What varieties do you grow?
I'm interested as I'm at 400ft in W Yorkshire, so quite possibly as cold and wet as you - though I've done better than you this year. Herrings Pippin, Brownlees Russet, Forge are very poor, Allington's Pippin markedly down - I have had over 100lbs of fruit off it but this year looks like possibly 30-40lb - King of the Pippins heavy crop but a lot of small fruits. Cornish Aromatic is doing really well, which is good news as it's my favourite.
I'd agree with others and prune as normal. How large are your trees? The theory is that if your tree is now as large as you want it, then summer pruning will encourage fruit rather than growth - but when is "summer" - and how do you prune a large tree without knocking some of the fruit off?
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