How to prune GIANT step over style apple trees!

Hello everyone! I’m new here today! I used to post occasionally on the Gardeners World forum but that’s gone now & I’ve just found this wonderful forum!
My question is a friend has recently moved & has “inherited” 4 huge apple trees, they are like giant step overs, so have a central trunk with arms going out left & right. Each tree is about 15ft high & wide and has loads of watershoots going straight up.
We’ve looked at the RHS web site on pruning apples but are baffled how to tackle these as they are not the normal “goblet” shaped trees??! They need reducing in height and ideally to produce fruit. Should all the water shoots come off? Or will that encourage more vigorous growth ?
I’ll try and post a photo & I hope my description has made sense, they are obviously old trees they have thick trunks & someone has propped up the arms at the ends in the past.

 

Could you get photograhs please sounds more like an espalier; than a stepover which would be about 2 ft tall.

 

Hi! Thanks for the reply! Yes I suppose they would be espalier (just did a quick search) just that they are not against a wall or fence but free standing.
OK just figured out how to add a picture! Not a great photo I’m afraid, this one has just one arm from the trunk but hopefully it shows how old & gnarled the tree is & how tangled it has become, the others are similar but with 2 arms, hope that helps ?

 

And you can see where it’s been propped up at the end

 

Hi … they look amazing


As they are so old I think a 3 year plan to prune would be best rather than tackle the whole pruning now . Start with crossing branches and reducing in height the whipy new growth.

personaly I think March is a bit late to heavy prune as the sap will have started rising.
Let’s see what others say


Spruce

 

They look absolutely beautiful.
From experience (not with old apple trees, just in general) take it slowly with removing water shoots. Only take out a small proportion each year, or even more will return.

 

Hi, yes that's an old espalier :-). First go along each arm and cut out anything that's obviously dead. Take out (pruning saw) the thick old vertical branches to try to leave one every 10" 25cm or so along the arm. Thin out the tufts of shoots on the end of the remaining ones to leave two and shorten them to 2 or 3 buds or 3 " , whichever comes first. Then, deep breath :-), repeat the exercise on the top arms. Obviously there'll be a lot more to prune away but as long as you leave some well-spaced old verticals with a couple of young, healthy shoots on each (which you shorten to 2/3 buds or 4" whichever comes first), you won't ever have to be so drastic again. In the summer and in following years you'll just need to 'tip' the new vertical shoots to encourage fruiting spurs.

 

PS . Sorry to go against the grain, but I grew espaliers in UK and did a couple of (successful) big orchard renovation jobs for clients. It seems drastic but at the price of one year's fruit, it really will be worth it. :-)

 

Wow that’s complicated !! I’ll chat to my friend see what they want to do, apparently the trees fruited well last autumn just that they’re getting too tall. Think we will tackle it together it’s a big job! Yes they are beautiful old things I wonder how old they might be?

 

Oh btw they’ve only got 1 “arm” each side of the trunk no top or higher arms so they are a T shape (hence I called them giant step overs)
The photo shows the one tree that had lost its left arm probably a long time ago as it’s healed over, I suspect it snapped off due to the weight. That’s what they’re also worried about with the others hence the post support.

 

Ah...that's already made it 50% less complicated! By the time you've taken out some of the most congested old vertical branches completely and reduced a third of the others to 6", then all that's left to do is thin out the remaining 'water' shoots as described above. The aim is to promote new growth lower down on the arms. All the while there is strong growth high up it will be diverting energy away from the main arm.

 

There was probably a wooden framework there when the trees were young that's long since rotted/fallen down and been removed. They look lovely, I hope you and your friend manage to keep their character.

 

Yes thankfully no higher arms!!

 

Oh yes the trees are keepers, they are quite incredible, just getting too tall & spoiling the view.
One other question the fact they have so many verticle watershoots is that a reaction to incorrect pruning previously ?

 

Yes....let's be kind and say 'misguided or no pruning ' :-) Can I just be a bit pedantic here and mention that water shoots are actually new, very thin sprouts that form around a pruning cut or damage. What you've got are just new, healthy shoots in.the wrong place :-)