The clearest explanation of apple tree pruning i have seen. better than the "experts" from Gardeners question time! Any chance of the same on a tree that needs restoring which branches to take which to keep etc, i have a volunteer tree?

Thanks, I have been humbled by the generous responses to these video tutorials, over 2,000 hiots in just a couple of weeks. They are not perfect but I have to say there isn't much on youTube about apple pruning and a lot of what there is is a little vague on detail.

restoring an old tree is a challenging task, but not at all dificult, provided there is eneough vitality in the tree and its not in shade. If you watch all ht evideos I have noe put up, you shoudl learn enough to guide you. The key things as I keep stressing in the tutorials are air, space, light, and balance.

You need a saw, and you need to saw out whole branches. 2 of my YouTube tutorials deal specifically with how to correctly saw out a big branch. Remove diseased branches, branches which are too low, too high, crowding out the middle of the tree, or which are crossing other branches. That's about it really. If you have a vast number of fresh new upright growth, my last video deals tiwith that-basically take out about three quarters of them, give or take, leaving some well-spaced growths comnpletely alone to form replacement branch systems.

Don't take out more than one third of the wood in one year.

When you have done that, not before, take the secateurs and reduce worn-out and badly spaced fruiting spur systems, like I show on the videos.

hope that helps

Stephen

--Stephen Hayes

Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to make the videos. As a beginner I have found watching you demonstrate techniques much clearer than the info in my gardening books. Many thanks
--Jane
<mailto:habershon@aol.com>

Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to make the videos. As a beginner I have found watching you demonstrate techniques much clearer than the info in my gardening books. Many thanks
--Jane

I love your videos on Youtube! Thanks for posting them. I am trying to rescue an old variety of apple that has been in my family
over a 100 years. I have no idea what it's name
is but it is a great pie apple as well a apple
sauce. I am starting with cuttings and root hormone. They are budding so maybe they will survive. I learned a lot from your videos.
-John
--John
<mailto:yellowhammer4@yahoo.com>