Fruit Thinning and Summer Pruning Your Apple Trees

Summer pruning is beneficial for both tree and fruit.  The apple trees I planted last year have grown long and leggy.  I took Stephen Hayes' advice (see his video at the bottom of this post).  The best time to Summer prune is mid to late Summer.

 Tree before pruning...The branches are not strong enough to carry the fruit and could break. 

Tree after pruning out half of this year's growth. Stephen Hayes says:

'It is better to under do it, than to overdo it!'

This glut of fruit (above) looks great, but I needed to prune out half!  This tree is an eater called Honey Crisp, a heavy cropper.  The crop do not ripen until October, so there are still another couple of months' of growing time..

The branch above had 10 fruit.  I reduced it to 5 in the picture below. By reducing this year's growth, the tree will focus on producing fruit. 

It is better to grow fewer unblemished fruit, so I weeded out damaged, smaller fruit and those receiving less sun.

  

Thinning out the fruit gives the remaining apples more access to light and more space to grow.  The apples should grow larger, too. 

Summer Pruning Video by Peter Hayes

I am no expert, but Stephen Hayes (Apple grower and owner of Hill Farm Orchards) has lots of experience. Click on the picture above to see his helpful video on Summer Pruning.

Thanks for reading this post!  Enjoy your day...

Further Links
RHS Fruit Thinning
RHS When to Prune
GardenSeeker Pruning Trees
Fruitwise Old English Apple Varieties