Hi all

I am new to fruit trees, having bought some last year. Now is the time to prune and I have been reading loads about the subject but am still unsure as to what would be best.... For these three trees I don't know whether they would be best suited to an open vase shape or central leader. They were bought last year as "2-year bush" trees; suggesting they were pruned to be open vase at the nursery. The nursery said that they could be trained to either form, but when I spoke to another nursery about them I was told it would be best to stick to the original form (open vase) and not to change it at this stage of development. However, each tree has a very central branch and not too many at a good angle to form an open vase. So I really don't know. Perhaps I should go for modified central leader...? I'm very confused and would be great to hear what people on the forum would suggest. Other pruning advice would also be most welcome. Here's some details and a pic of each.

Rosemary Russet Apple Tree. M26 rootstock. 3 years old.




Discovery Apple Tree. M26 rootstock. 3 years old.




Packham's Triumph Pear Tree. Quince A rootstock. 3 years old.




Aside form those trees, I have an Obelisk Pear Tree (columnar/pyramidal) and a Dwarf Medlar Westerveldt. I've been told that for both of these trees no pruning is ever required except for general shaping and the removal of the "3 Ds". Would people agree with that? Again. here's pics and details:

Obelisk Pear Tree. Quince A rootstock. 3 years old.




Dwarf Medlar Westerveldt. It's either 3 or 5 years old - not sure which!




Huge thanks to anyone who can help.

Kind regards

Max

PS - I am in the UK.

On 15/03/2017 11:20, MaxDread wrote:
Hi all

I am new to fruit trees, having bought some last year. Now is the time
to prune and I have been reading loads about the subject but am still
unsure as to what would be best.... For these three trees I don't know
whether they would be best suited to an open vase shape or central
leader. They were bought last year as "2-year bush" trees; suggesting
they were pruned to be open vase at the nursery. The nursery said that
they could be trained to either form, but when I spoke to another
nursery about them I was told it would be best to stick to the original
form (open vase) and not to change it at this stage of development.

They are still young and small enough that this year you can probably
get away with "if in doubt do nowt" as a working policy. Just cut out
any crossing branches, really weak or diseased growth and do it soon
(too late where I am for pruning fruit - my pear tree almost in flower).

RHS does a rather good fruit pruning guidebook available in libraries.

I'd let them get to the height you want and then think about tweaking
the shape when you have seen another years extra growth. Basically you
want a good airflow round the branches and plenty of sun on the tree.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Thanks for the comments and advice. I've asked on some other forums, and been reading and watching videos. There's plenty to think about! It's quite a tricky topic for a newcomer as people seem to approach it in such vastly different ways, both in terms of the finer details and the major ones such as whether to even prune or not!

On 16/03/17 00:53, MaxDread wrote:


Thanks for the comments and advice. I've asked on some other forums, and
been reading and watching videos. There's plenty to think about! It's
quite a tricky topic for a newcomer as people seem to approach it in
such vastly different ways, both in terms of the finer details and the
major ones such as whether to even prune or not!

Don't forget that no matter how much time and effort you spend on the
tree it will do what it wants to do. That usually means alternate good
and poor cropping years. And in the good cropping years you will find
you won't know what to do with the vast surplus of fruit you will get.
In the end I stuck bags of apples outside on a table and left a notice
telling passers by to just take what they wanted!

--

Jeff

On 16/03/2017 09:09, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 16/03/17 00:53, MaxDread wrote:


Thanks for the comments and advice. I've asked on some other forums, and
been reading and watching videos. There's plenty to think about! It's
quite a tricky topic for a newcomer as people seem to approach it in
such vastly different ways, both in terms of the finer details and the
major ones such as whether to even prune or not!

Don't forget that no matter how much time and effort you spend on the
tree it will do what it wants to do. That usually means alternate good
and poor cropping years. And in the good cropping years you will find
you won't know what to do with the vast surplus of fruit you will get.
In the end I stuck bags of apples outside on a table and left a notice
telling passers by to just take what they wanted!


Apart from my Japanese pear tree which is a martyr to early frosts
zapping the flowers and late ones harming the fruit before it is ripe
enough to pick my trees seem fairly well behaved. I have a family tree
of Sunset on Egremont Russett (the latter being far more vigorous) which
does take more careful pruning to maintain a balance but the ordinary
trees can be pretty much left to get on with it and pruning done only to
maintain a size and shape that fits the garden.

You can tweak the trees performance a bit more by summer and winter
pruning but I have never bothered. I only prune in winter when the
skeleton shape is more obvious and maintain a classic goblet shape (more
or less). Trees will be trees and there is no point in fighting it
unless you are training up against a wall as a cordon. We get way more
apples than we can sensibly eat even in a poor fruiting year.

We do swaps with neighbours for plums (where pruning is inadvisable).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown