You can easily spot dead branches during the spring and summer.
Pruning Apple Trees 3 When to Prune If you have a small orchard, delay pruning until it’s nearly spring. Allow for rain and bad weather, but plan to be finished pruning by May 1 or in time to begin spraying.
Try to leave branches with a 45 to 50 degree angle from the trunk.
In many larger orchards, the pruning begins soon after harvest and continues through to spring. Old trees are pruned first and young trees are left until March and. Pruning angles Narrow, V-shape crotch angles in the limbs are an open invitation to disastrous splitting later on, particularly when your apple tree is supporting a large fruit crop.

For your tree’s branches, choose wide 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock angles. Pruning to a bud. Feb 07, Apple tree trimming is beneficial for several reasons: removing diseased or damaged limbs, maintaining a controlled height from which fruit may be more easily picked, developing a strong structure for fruit production, and encouraging new limbs. Pruning apple trees is essential to the overall health of the tree.
The shape of the apple tree during the budding season and following winter will Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins. Oct 07, When is the best time to prune an apple tree? The best time to prune apple trees is either late in the winter or early in the spring because that’s the time when the tree is entering a dormant state after shedding its leaves and before new buds appear.
It’s best to complete the pruning just before the growth starts in the spring, so the cuts have time to heal stumpfell.clubted Reading Time: 9 mins. Mar 16, - You can prune an apple tree any time of the year without hurting it, but late winter, just before spring, is probably best. The worst of the cold weather is past, so you won't be subjecting the fresh cuts to severe icing, but you'll still be able to influence the tree's spring stumpfell.clubted Reading Time: 3 mins.
When pruning apple trees, you’ll want to train up one central leader. The central leader is the main truck / branch that goes up the middle of your apple tree. All the other branches come off this central leader. Some apple trees have two main limbs that branch off the main trunk and go up the center of the tree.