I've recently moved to Richland, WA (Eastern Washington) and planted an unknown variety Apple tree this fall. We are zone 7 (although, probably closer to a high 6). My soil is like beach sand when I dig. I have plenty of water available, but this is a desert (hot summers, cold winters with minimal precip ~7 inches a year). At the recommendation of the local nursery, I added soil amendments when planting. I've also staked this tree to assist with our high spring winds. My goals for this tree are to grow it much larger for shade and to produce fruit for my children to pick as they grow up (newborn and 2 1/2 years). I need some help with suggested training/pruning. My nursery who sold me the tree said it was self-pollinating, yet most Apple trees are not and if they didnt know what variety of apple this is how would they know this? The first photo is unedited. The second photo includes labels of the branches for easier discussion. The third photo shows my proposed pruning cuts (in red) and added spacers (in Orange - correct me if I don't need them). I plan on pruning all of my trees in the late winter, but before spring (probably early February). Can you please give me advice? Ive never tried to grow trees and want to do it right. Thanks!
To me, this tree appears to be poorly trained at the nursery. The basic idea is to develop lateral branches that are vertically spaced along the trunk and have wide crotch angles. The two main branches, labeled A and B, both have narrow crotch angles and are at the same height. Both will be susceptible to splitting off when the tree has a heavy crop. I don't know of an easy way to correct this problem except by drastic pruning. You can leave A and B, pruning them back much more drastically than indicated, and hope for the best. If this were my tree, I would remove A and B entirely and develop new main branches by training smaller side branches to grow with wide crotch angles. There are plenty of Web resources to show the appearance of a properly trained tree.
Be brave, and don't worry too much about messing it up! There are oodles of books and ideas about various pruning methods which can get confusing. Basically, think about how you want the tree to look in 10 years, and make the tree how you want it. However, I will offer a few suggestions. I agree that A and B are not formed very well. Two branches should not come off of the trunk at the same height as this will create weak structure in the wood which may break under heavy load in the future. Also, the crotch angles of the branches should be wider, i.e. they should come out from the trunk horizontally. After the first year of growth they become hard to bend down, so the best thing to do is to cut off A and B and train new sprouts instead. New shoots in their first year can be held down horizontally by clipping ordinary laundry clips on them close to the trunk. You can cause any bud on the trunk to grow into a shoot by making a small cut in the bark just above it at pruning time. The bud will think that the whole tree has been cut off above it, and therefore it grows. This way, you can form branches precisely where you want them. Hope this helps. As for the pollinating, you are right. How do you know if it is self-pollinating if you don't know the variety? The answer is, you don't. Even self-pollinating varieties do better if they have another variety to cross with. If your neighbours have no apple trees and you don't want to buy another one, you can graft another variety from a friend onto a couple limbs. For a beginner, I would recommend the whip-and-tongue graft which is simple to do and explained in most fruit tree books. Honestly, the literature on grafting is probably less confusing than pruning, and you don't need fancy equipment. I have used electrical tape to tie grafts and toilet gasket wax to seal them, or you can skip waxing and still have a good chance of success. Any utility knife that is sharp can be used. The time for grafting is a little later than pruning; at the time when the sap starts to rise but before the leaves open up. Probably March in your area. Dive in, experiment, if you make a mistake, you can always prune it off next year!
