Last year I pruned the old apple tree that I inherited. I hope my pruning has been restorative! I cut out all the crossing branches growing in to the centre of the tree and made enough space so as I could throw my hat through! However, I've since read that I shouldn't have done it all in one go but over 3 years.

It was quite leafy with little blossom after pruning and now I need to know what to do about the shoots coming out of the main branches at every angle? Are they water shoots and thus I cut them all off. Or if not, what they are and what do I do about them?

Many thanks

Hi Kate,

Well done on tackling your tree.

The new, long straight growth you have is a very typical reaction to winter pruning. Yes, they are water shoots, but you probably won't want to remove them all.

Any well placed ones can be used to form a new structure for your tree. Select a few which have plenty of space around them. As they are growing so vertically you could tie them down to an angle of about 45 degrees, or a little closer to horizontal. Tie some string to the shoot and the other end to a lower branch, or peg it into the ground. These shoots will thicken and lengthen over the years to form a new framework. In a year or two they should be forming fruit buds and your tree will become productive once again.

Cut out any shoots which you do not want, but remember these are likely to sprout again this summer. The way to remove them permanently is by summer pruning. So, in late July take out any unwanted re-growth again.

Good Luck,
Chloe

Thank you Chloe for this clear and helpful advice.

Here is a picture of the old tree with its chosen branches lashed to just above horizontal at the end of March. I made pegs from hazel to stick the twine in the ground.

Would it help the tree to put a mulch of 4 inches of well rotted manure around without touching the trunk say 1m diameter? And is it ok to do it now in mid April?

Hi Kate,

Sorry you couldn't upload your picture to the forum - We'll look into that.

Thanks for emailing the photo to us, here it is for everyone to see!

And thanks for sharing your story - I can't wait to hear how the old apple tree gets on with it's new makeover! Looking at the webstats we've people from far and wide googling things like 'pruning water shoots from apple trees' and 'restorative pruning' - hopefully your story will have inspired them!

For all you seedsaving 'facebookers' out there (you know who you are!) - please join Kate and share your gardening tips, stories and questions with the world here on the Seedsavers forum (it's open to anyone - just click 'register' at the top of the page!). You could make some frustrated gardening googlers day with your experiences!

Bye for now,

Jen

Thanks Jen.

Kate - Great. You've the beginnings of a better shape for your tree. After that drastic prune it should put on some good growth this year. Next winter you'll probably want to remove the two big verticle branches in the centre, leaving your tree with a nice open shape.

A mulch will help increase the tree's vigour. The tree's feeding roots will be in the area under the edge of the canopy - so this is where the nutients need to be. It's common for people to mulch a metre diameter around a tree - and that's great for saplings, but for bigger trees it's not where it's needed. I believe that it's better to mulch in a doughnut shaped ring around the tree, under the drip-line. It's a little hard to judge scale from the photo, but it looks like your doughnut should be about 50cm wide. This should increase the soil fertility just where it's needed.