Should I prune my apple tree?

Hello, I'm new to the site and whilst I've found all sorts of very useful advice here, I can't find anything about pruning apple trees.

I have a 4" tall eating apple tree (I think it's a 'Scrumptious' but not certain)which is beginning it's 2nd summer in my garden. It's a grafted tree, no idea what the root stock is from. The tree has two main upright branches from about 2" off the ground and perhaps 10 lesser branches all of which bore 6 or so apples last autumn. The weight of the apples was such that I had to support the branches. There are no 'sub-branches', each branch is undivided.

Obviously it's too late to do anything this year but after the fruit has been harvested in autumn, should I be pruning the tree? Would reducing the length of the branches encourage them to sprout additional branches? Should I remove one of the two main verticals to encourage the remaining one to establish itself as the trunk?

As you can see, I know nothing about fruit trees and am completely clueless, so any advice would be most welcome. :o

 

Try a summer prune, just open up the middle, water a lot in this dry weather look out for the June drop and all should be ok.

 

Please DON'T prune it!

I would NEVER recommend pruning a fruit tree before its 3rd season, pick off most (if not all) fruitlets, allow the leaves to feed the tree!

You'll end up with a healthier and stronger tree at the end of the year, then you can prune lightly, allow a few fruits next season, just a few!

Following year a bit more pruning but leave a few more "fruitlets" and so on.

 

What is 'June drop?'

Last year we had lots of fruit for such a small tree, but it weighed the branches down terribly. Is that why you recommend removing the fruits, so that the branches can strengthen over the next few years? What are the implications if I don't remove the fruits?

Thanks for the advice.

 

Hi Darkside,

June drop is natures way of thinning out the fruit, the apple will produce more flowers than it can support in case some don't get polinated.

In june it will drop the excess ones to give the rest a chance to develop.