Saturday may not have brought the warmer weather typically associated with the return of the growing season, but that did not stop a small group of spring hopefuls from gathering in a windy, snow-covered Bristol field for a lesson on how to prune an apple tree. 

The workshop was hosted by Greg Graham, who has been caring for his 1,100-tree apple orchard on his family farm in Bristol since it was planted in the early 2000s. 

“Usually we say you can prune once the coldest part of winter is over,” he said, explaining prolonged cold winds will suck moisture out of the open wounds left behind by pruning. Graham said the long winter meant Saturday’s blitz came later in the season than he usually begins the process. 

Among those gathered to pick up a few tips and tricks was Dave Schock, who showed up to learn how to care for some trees his grandfather planted on his family’s Ladysmith farm about a century ago. 

“They need attention,” he said, noting while he was unsure of their variety, they made excellent pie apples. “This is learning how to do it properly.” 

After having all participants sterilize their pruners in some bleach, Graham encouraged them to get trimming. He highlighted a few key practices for pruning, noting there will be different challenges to watch for depending on what kind of tree is being pruned. 

1. Cut out the dead stuff

“If there’s any part of the tree that’s dead it’s going to provide a habitat for bacteria, it’s going to encourage insects that can transfer viruses and disease, and the dead tissue can travel back up into the branch,” Graham explained. 

He said you can identify dead wood by using a thumbnail to scrape one of the trees younger branches. If it’s alive, the scrape will reveal a layer of green – the cambium that has the active cells and does the growing and the transfer of nutrients and water. If a scrape reveals a layer of brown or red, the branch is dead. 

Graham said wrinkly bark is also evidence of a dead branch, an indication that it was dehydrated after a winter of cold winds and was unable to rehydrate itself. 

“Figure out where it’s dead and where it’s living, and cut into the living part because you don’t want to leave any dead wood on the tree,” Graham said, emphasizing the importance of making the cut at 90 degrees to the branch to create the smallest possible wound. 

Also important is using a resin, or sometimes tar, to seal up wounds, and using well-sharpened pruners. 

2. Give it a haircut

Once dead wood is removed, the next step is to open up the spaces between the tree’s main fruit producing branches. 

“Apple trees in particular, but most fruit trees, tend to form fruit on lateral drooping branches, they don’t form fruit on upright branches. Upright branches are all vegetal,” Graham said.  

He advised pruners to trim their tree so it becomes shaped like a fountain, with strong lateral branches that droop down at their ends. 

Part of this process involves cutting back all water sprout branches – the young twig-looking ones, usually lighter in colour with less developed bark, that grow out of lateral branches, heading straight up towards the sky. Graham said these rarely produce fruit, just weigh down the lateral branches and eventually cause breaks. 

“You don’t want Bart Simpson hair,” he warned. Importantly, Graham noted that not all not all small branches on the older wood are bad news. The shorter, more crooked twigs that grow out from older branches in random directions – referred to by Graham as witches’ fingers – often bear fruit and should be saved. 

Graham said trees can withstand being trimmed back by about a third of their size in one year. 

“If you stress the tree out too much it’s going to send up a ton of water sprouts that year.” 

He said big picture, the goal is to open up breathing room between the branches to allow for more sunlight to reach the tree’s inner branches and for greater air circulation to prevent disease.  

Graham shared a visual once shared with him when he was first learning to care for his tries. 

“If you’ve got a more mature tree, and you’re wondering how much you should thin it out, take a cat, rub it the wrong way until it’s good and angry, and then throw the cat through the tree. The cat should pass through the tree without hitting a branch,” he said.

“Now, of course, we don’t condone animal abuse, it’s just a mental exercise.”