Fruits and Nuts: Pruning a crab apple tree that is tuning into a shrub., 0 by mrs_colla

mrs_colla wrote:
My two cents;
Prune an apple when it is dormant; when all the leaves have dropped. Don't prune too many big branches at once, take the whole as a process over some years, and open it up in the middle.
You can prune all the dead twigs and branches, take away crossed branches and remove some twiggy growth.

You might " sacrifice" some fruit, but renewing it every 5 years or so will keep the tree bearing more in the long run.

Take a picture of the tree, and then draw in sharpie lines in stages how you would like the tree to look in 3 years.
Use 3 colours for that, and let that be your guide.

Christie