Apple Tree Trimming?

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What would ya'll do with this one?
0223131315_zpsb54edf45.jpg
 
That top one needs to be thinned in a bad way. Take out alot of those vertical branches and leave more of the horizontalish branches. I take a central leader approach. One strong central leader with fruiting limbs off of that. My first scaffold on semi dwarf or standard is generally around 5 feet high or so, no limbs below that(after I get the tree tall enough to warrant that). I really need to take some pics post pruning and training and put them on here.
 
smstone22 said:
That top one needs to be thinned in a bad way. Take out alot of those vertical branches and leave more of the horizontalish branches. I take a central leader approach. One strong central leader with fruiting limbs off of that. My first scaffold on semi dwarf or standard is generally around 5 feet high or so, no limbs below that(after I get the tree tall enough to warrant that). I really need to take some pics post pruning and training and put them on here.
Click to expand...

I just trimmed mine the 1st time a couple of weeks back and tried the approach you are describing. These are 2 yr old trees and I didn't prune them the 1st year. I tried to follow the advice I got from The Wildlife Group that says to strive for a cenrtal trunk with multiple tiers of scafold limbs equally distributed around the trunk like spokes on a bicycle wheel. I am trying to get the tiers about a foot or so apart and keep the top center limb as the tallest part of the tree. Of course some trees lend themselves better to this than others. I had one for instance that branched out from the center trunk with 3 perfectly spread scafold branches and the trunk ended at the root of the scaffolds. I just did the best I could with each tree. The hardest part was removing at least 1/3 to 2/3 of the total limbs. If I hadn't seen how well that works with my wife's roses, I'd never be able to chop on my trees like that.
I'll try to take some pictures on the weekend of what I did - not that it's intended in any way to be an example because I am for srue a beginner at fruit tree growing.
 
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Yeah, that first tree is a tough call. I'd just start whittling away at any branches that were pointing down, growing back across the main trunk or growing back towards the trunk, and then just see where it takes you keeping in mind you either won't to have a "central leader" or "open concept" tree. I think from the picture this try has decided to be more of an open concept spread. I think that is the correct term.
 
Here is what was taught at the master gardener class by a guy in the apple orchard business.

#1 cut off any/all limbs growing downward.
#2. Cut off any/all limbs growing straight up.
#3. remove limbs which will be shaded by other limbs.

What you are basically trying to do is create a bowl shaped tree that is somewhat open in the middle. Remember that fruit needs sun to ripen so all the extra branches that don't get sun will produce inferior fruit if they produce any.

What you are aiming for is 3-4 scaffold limbs growing horizontally. Limbs with a steep angle forming a "V" are weak at the joint and are likely to split when heavy with fruit. The wider the angle in the "V" the stronger the joint.

He recommends pruning the central leader, but I can't remember the specifics of exactly how. Main reason is to prevent the tree from getting too tall, putting fruit up out of reach, and shading the rest of the tree.

If you want big fat fruit like the grocery store, you need to remove 2/3 of the blossoms so the tree can pack nutrients into fewer fruit. They use liquid Seven and spray the tree causing the blossoms to fall off.

Hope this helps.
 

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