[FiB]

Well, the time for pruning my orchard is fast diminishing - and I just cant get started.  I recon it was only planted 5-10 years ago and is in a pretty sorry state.  It didnt bear much edible fruit last year (our first here) and many of the branches are damaged (bark looks like its peeling off) or dead.  The trees might be diseased and need replacing (how would I know) or just need a damn good prune.  I guess I cant loose with the latter and Ive looked up pruning in my books - but they mostly seem to cover new trees or those in regular maintainance. I think mine need more than that but how far should I go?    Frightened of cutting too much AND not enough off.  I keep going down with my pruning saw and coming back up again!!  I suspect I could do with some proffessional assistance, but have run out of money at mo (see 'TAX!!!!'   ) so I HAVE to do it.   HELP PLease !

[bloomer]

lets start with the easy question where are you?

prune very hard, cut out anything that looks diseased and or growing in the wrong direction...

you may not get much fruit this year but in the long run its for the best.

[YorkshireLass]

It's not rocket science... though I've not been back to see if my victims survived 

Take off anything that looks diseased, stand back and look. You're aiming for a vaguely symmetrical shape with one main vertical stem. Cut off any side branches that cross each other or point in towards the trunk, or are growing in a direction that will interfere with other branches. Take the cut stems back to a bud that will sprout in the right direction.

That's about your basic idea! 

[robert waddell]

if the trees are all at the same height prune them to the same height IE any branches up to waist high cut back to trunk or chest high  and remove all branches from the orchard
i am assuming it is grass underfoot  when mowing is the trunk damaged  was there a lot of flourish last year and was it a good year weather wise for fruit did neighbours have more success than you 

[FiB]

Thanks - I'm near Bala, North Wales.  How hard - about a foot of branches left coming off the trunk?  Or a bit more?  I'm thinking pollards - or is that too much for fruit trees.  I'm happy with coppicing and pollarding my woods - its hard to kill hazel, ash, birch, willow if you cut in these dormant months - but there is something mystical about fruit trees to me!  I think its all the grafting and rootstock stuff! 

The trunks are about 4- 5 ft high and the biggest trees have gone to about 10 foot I'd guess.   The orchard is towards the bottom of our south facing slope and there is a hedge on the upper side.  Right I'm getting down there... tomorrow!

[Rosemary]

Right I'm getting down there... tomorrow!

Do it NOW 

I'm exactly the same about pruning fruit trees - thank goodness Dan will be doing the 140 we'll have here 

[Fleecewife]

I'm having great fun at the moment pruning very very overgrown and neglected soft fruit bushes.  Well, in fact I've done them and just started on the blackberries - not so much fun 

Here I don't prune top fruit until about March or even early April, and definitely not while it's frozen.

Your flaky bark could well be canker, which is a horrible disease which spreads to every tree.  You would also see what look like soft rotten patches.  You need to cut back to before any bits like that and disinfect your loppers/secateurs between every cut.  That sounds a drag but otherwise every cut you make will be spreading the canker into good wood.  I use spirit or meths in a jar, with an old toothbrush to scrub the tools.  It really is worth doing that - I have kept many of my trees going that way.  If the canker is in the trunk the tree is lost.

Once you have cut back all rotten wood, stand back and see what your tree looks like.  Hopefully you will have enough branches left to form some sort of shape.  You don't need to prune the branches right back to a foot long - leave a bit more length, maybe 2 feet, and cut just below a bud which is facing either up or down but not sideways - this will give a better shape as the tree regrows.  What you are aiming for is a goblet shape, with an empty centre for air circulation, and the branches evenly spaced around the trunk.  The bud you cut above will become the new leader for that branch so choose it so it will grow on into a pleasing shape ie continuing the line of the original branch not setting out sideways.  The new shoots will naturally grow upwards.

If these are apples, most apple trees bear fruit on spurs, which are short lengths of branch with about three buds on, growing out from the main branches - so prune any side branches back to those three buds.

So this will give you a tree with hopefully about 5 main branches, carefully cut back to about 2', plus a number of short stubby twigs coming off it where the side branches were.

All of this will cause the tree to put on a lot of fresh growth in spring, and all this fresh growth should be cut back in about June, to half the length of the new growth.  Then next winter you can cut back the new growth again to the magic three buds.

A few apple trees are not spur bearers but tip bearers - you won't get any fruit at all on those this year as you will have to cut off all the tips.

If you have plum trees, don't prune at all until the summer.  Pears should be ok and tend to look unmanaged anyway.

Don't be scared of pruning - if you get it wrong, the tree will grow out of it like a bad haircut.  I dithered for years before I could take the plunge - the final straw was when my OH pruned all my espaliers into normal tree shapes and I realised I would be better to do it myself 

[FiB]

Fantastic - great advice (especially Rosmary's ).  Made a start with one tree this afternoon.  Once I had removed everything dead, crossing, inside there wasnt much left!!!, but it looks better so will have to see how it grows.  There seem to be two sorts of disease.  Will try to find camera and post pics tomorrow.   Thanks all again.  TAS heroes to the rescue.

[Fleecewife]

Before and after pics would reward us 

[Eve]

the final straw was when my OH pruned all my espaliers into normal tree shapes and I realised I would be better to do it myself

When my husband weeds, EVERYTHING is gone - even those little plants growing so neatly in a row underneath that length of string that indicates where the row of sown seeds is, grrrrrr     He's now strictly on digging duty only 

[Rosemary]

the final straw was when my OH pruned all my espaliers into normal tree shapes and I realised I would be better to do it myself

When my husband weeds, EVERYTHING is gone - even those little plants growing so neatly in a row underneath that length of string that indicates where the row of sown seeds is, grrrrrr     He's now strictly on digging duty only 

  I weeded some plants Dan had planted once. Celeriac, I think. 

[Dan]

the final straw was when my OH pruned all my espaliers into normal tree shapes and I realised I would be better to do it myself

When my husband weeds, EVERYTHING is gone - even those little plants growing so neatly in a row underneath that length of string that indicates where the row of sown seeds is, grrrrrr     He's now strictly on digging duty only 

  I weeded some plants Dan had planted once. Celeriac, I think. 

It was fennel. I've not been able to bear sowing it again just in case.