Winter pruning apple trees

A mild dry day in January like today is perfect. I'm following the principles of "regulated pruning" and the most important thing to do first is to take your time and properly assess the tree before making a single cut. Most damage to mature trees is caused by hard pruning - so taking away a maximum of 10% of the growth should be your first rule. If a tree needs more work to restore its shape, form and fruiting potential, then we'll need to do this over two, or three or more years. It is better to prune a tree lightly each year than go in hard and trigger lots of unproductive vegetative growth. We always start with removing the dead, diseased, dying and damaged wood and then anything crossing or rubbing. After that I look to remove any growth forming a narrow angle to the trunk or growing towards the centre of the tree - we always want to maintain or create an open structure allowing the light in and the air to circulate. Next we can remove or significantly reduce all the vigorous upright growth originating from a horizontal branch. Many of these will be watershoots and we want to encourage horizontal growth, which is where the new fruiting spurs will develop. Finally, the shape and habit of the tree should guide us to consider reducing any of the lateral branches which look too long for the size of the tree or which may bow down and break under the weight of the crop. Here we're looking to select a younger horizontal replacement branch that will take up the vigour as a branch leader after we make our pruning cut. It's easy to feel daunted and under pressure to make all the right decisions when pruning - I do! But by following these rules rather than worrying about some complicated doctrine, and by never going in too hard, hopefully it'll be an enjoyable task. Your tree will definitely thank you and gardening is supposed to be enjoyable after all!