Apple trees are among those fruit plants in the garden that need to be cut regularly to ensure vitality and yield. Caring for your apple tree with careful winter pruning will help you rejuvenate it and harvest more apples.
When and how should winter pruning be carried out on an apple tree?
Winter pruning for apple trees should be done on a mild day between January and March. The goal is a loosened tree crown with a central shoot and around three to four secondary branches. Leave fruit-bearing branches at an angle of at least 45 degrees and cut vertically growing branches.
Choosing the right time to prune the apple tree in winter
Winter pruning of the apple tree should be done in the late winter months between January and March. You should choose a mild day on which it is neither significantly warm nor frosty cold. When cutting, make sure to create a loose tree crown with a balanced ratio of height and circumference. Overall, a tree crown should consist of a central shoot and around three to four secondary branches. The fruit-bearing branches should branch off from these at an angle of at least 45 degrees. If this is not the case despite cutting, they can also be bent into shape using weights or tensioned cords.
Beware of illnesses
Every cut of an apple tree may be fundamentally necessary, but it also damages the tree bark and thus potentially opens the door to various diseases. To prevent this, you can apply commercially available wound care products to larger cuts on trees (€24.00 on Amazon). You should also make sure that when cutting vertically rising branches, there are no exactly horizontal interfaces. Otherwise water would collect on these and permanently break open the wound closure every time it freezes in winter.
In the summer, correct the mistakes and omissions of the winter
Winter pruning is generally recommended for larger pruning and rejuvenation of the tree, as it causes the branches to grow less strongly than, for example, pruning in autumn. But you can also in summer:
- Correct winter pruning errors
- Easily identify and remove dead branches
- Remove water shoots at the top of the tree crown
- thin out too much fruit in favor of fruit sweetness
Tips & Tricks
Regular pruning not only serves to permanently rejuvenate the apple tree, but also to stimulate the buds for fruit setting. In addition, caring for a sparse tree crown prevents diseases and fungal infestation.
