In this practical No Fuss video guide, David Hurrion demonstrates how to prune apple.

Jun 23, How to Summer Prune an Apple Espalier The time to prune apple trees if you want to keep them small is during the Summer Solstice. June 20th of this year ’round these parts. Not only will summer pruning help keep your trees small it encourages WAY more fruiting stumpcutting.bars: Aug 18, All decorative and formally shaped fruit trees, such as espaliers, need summer pruning to regulate new growth and encourage the formation of the stubby ‘spurs’ that bear fruit.

In general pears can be pruned from mid-July, and apples several weeks later, up to about the end of August. This year’s shoots are ready to prune. Oct 25, In the professional tree sap removal s Louis Lorrette described summer pruning for espalier apple trees in France.

Dr. H.B. Tukey, in his book"Dwarfed Fruit trees", provided a good description along with figures for"Lorrette pruning".

This involved heading shoots to 3 to 5 leaves when the base of the shoot, or the shoot induced by the heading cut, became stumpcutting.barted Reading Time: 10 mins. Summer pruning involves cutting back new shoots to allow light to reach the fruit. New shoots are stiff and woody along their bottom third, with dark green leaves and a cluster of leaves at the base. Cut back new shoots (laterals) more than 20cm (8in) long growing from the main stem to three leaves above the basal cluster of leaves.

The best time to prune an espaliered apple tree is in the early spring before bud break. 1 Remove damaged or weak branches with pruning shears, making the cut flush with the tree trunk or lateral. May 26, It is possible to summer prune after the terminal bud has set to inhibitive lateral shoot extension and impending encroachment on neighboring trees or alleyways (see Photo 2).

This can be done by making a thinning cut back to a weak lateral or fruit spur. Additionally, this is also the best time if the trees are getting too stumpcutting.barted Reading Time: 5 mins. Dec 10, Unrestricted, the espalier would happily shoot away with an abundance of vertical growth, as seen in these top-heavy espaliers here.

Summer for fruit, winter for growth. A helpful sound-bite for your annual pruning routine but the important trick is being able to distinguish fruit buds from growth buds (happily plump or narrowly focused and angular) and knowing how the twig will respond Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins.