On 12/08/2013 09:16, Chris J Dixon wrote:
RustyHinge wrote:

On 15/07/13 16:41, Chris J Dixon wrote:

In November 2010 I bought a 2-year bare-root family apple tree
from Blackmoor. On M26 stock I have Discovery, James Grieve and
Sunset.

The problem I have is that Discovery, a tip bearer, is the least
vigorous of the three. As it has not grown a lot, I guess that
pruning it back is not a good idea. However, if I winter prune
the other two, presumably this will stimulate them into further
growth, and increase the unbalance.

Would it be sensible to reduce James Grieve and
Sunset slightly by summer pruning?

I have a similar tree, and I intend removing Discovery completely and
grafting another variety in its place, or close to the stunted branch.

My opinion of Discovery is similar to that of Golden Delicio^h^h^revolting.

That's interesting. I certainly dislike GD, but found last year's
small crop of Discovery perfectly acceptable.

I'd be tempted to prune back 1/3 to 1/2 of all the discovery stems
fairly hard in the Autumn along with the other cultivars. Then you still
get some crop and you might perk it up into active growth.

I am not convinced the triple grafted ones are worth it unless you are
very short of space. Binary trees are easier to maintain.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown