Pruning an Old, Neglected Apple Tree

If you’re ready to rejuvenate your old fruit trees, or you’ve inherited a space that has an old tree (or forgot to prune your trees for the past decade - it happens!), you just need to spend some time learning about pruning! You’ll want to read our previous post about dormant pruning to get you started, and make note to come back to read our Summer Pruning blog post when it come out this June/July. If you still have access to the person who cared for the tree before you, you could check to see if they are willing to provide mentorship during your first pruning session(s).

The scenario we want to touch on in more detail in this post is for all the folks who connect with us about rejuvenating or saving old, neglected or wild fenceline apple trees their families love. Often these trees are not producing much in the way of abundant crops or new growth. This also means these trees are past the ideal stage to obtain propagation material if you want to save your treasured tree’s genetics, but it’s not too late! If this is something that interests you, you’ll need to plan ahead to bring your tree back to a vibrant growth cycle to get quality grafting material. Read on to learn how to nurture your tree to produce both large, bountiful crops again as well as healthy scionwood/budwood.

Dormant pruning will be necessary and in addition to a sturdy ladder, pruners, loppers and a pruning saw, you may also want a chainsaw. If your tree is a large, full-sized fenceline one like the True Root Pippin that we were pruning last spring, you’ll also want a tractor with a small trailer to haul your largest branches away, and you’ll likely want to schedule a day or full afternoon and enlist the help of some family members or friends for your pruning activities with your old tree.

If operating a chainsaw safely isn’t in your wheelhouse, employ your local arborist to take out a critical branch or two - we recommend having an idea in mind of your plan (see below) and having a conversation with your arborist, as some aren’t specifically well versed in fruit tree pruning. If you are both on the same page, chances are you’ll have good success.

To fully rejuvenate an old tree, you’re actually going to plan out four years (or more) of dormant pruning to encourage new vegetative growth and re-build the tree into a nicely structured and more functional fruit tree, removing 20-25% of the tree each year. If your tree is quite over-grown, summer pruning can help you control growth while dormant pruning will be where you work on establishing shape and structure. Dormant (winter) pruning will also spur the vegetative growth which is what we use for grafting: You’ll get budwood the following August, or scions for the following spring. For example, dormant prune in March 2025 to get budwood for August 2025 or scionwood for grafting in spring 2026.

First, it is very important to note that you should always cut back to a branch that is a minimum of 3 times the diameter of the branch you are cutting. This is because in cases where a branch is removed and leaves half (or more) of the remaining branch exposed, the tree struggles to heal at the cut area and dieback can occur on the opposite side of the cut surface – think of it in the same terms as a rabbit girdling a young 1 or 2-year-old tree; removing the cambium cell layer (the living growth layer under the bark that transports the tree’s life force, hormones and nutrients) from half or more of the trunk or branches generally has a large negative impact! Sometimes this dieback will continue to trace all the way back to the trunk of the tree. Generally, nobody brings out a measuring tape for every branch they prune and you don’t need to either, we just want to emphasize the importance of keeping this rule of thumb in your mind as you assess where to prune.

WINTER #1: The Dormant Pruning Steps for the First Year of Rejuvenation Pruning

Before cutting, always take time to stand back and consider your options and desired future shape first, and remember that you need to think 5+ years into the future here. Flagging tape or spray paint might help you visualize in a way that allows you to plan out which branches to take now and which should wait until a future year. Remember, you can’t put the branch back after it’s been cut!

1. Remove dead wood, then diseased or broken branches. Remember to dispose of any diseased branches by removing them from the orchard and burning or otherwise destroying them. Dead wood does not count towards your 20-25%.
2. Next, assess your tree to decide how to begin opening the canopy. When we talk about an open canopy for fruit trees, we mean there is lots of room for air circulation and sunlight – think about whether you could (hypothetically) throw a cat through the tree. If it would hit branches, your canopy should be opened up more, but you will not be able to do it all in one session.

• Given that your tree is neglected, you likely have some sail branches, aka ‘trees-in-trees’. This happens when a water sprout takes off vertically on a branch, and in 5+ years becomes its own little tree in the main structure of your tree. These are at high risk of breaking the branch they are growing off of due to increased weight, and should be removed first. If this is already 20% of your tree it will be all you do for your dormant prune until next season.

• Next, continue removing additional branches (usually lateral/scaffold branches that are too long and heavy) that are at risk for breaking OR are rubbing against one another – severe rubbing can cause damage that opens wounds and can create entry points for pathogens to enter the tree. Depending on your assessment of which situation is more severe (if you have both), you can leave rubbing branches for removal in the second year of your process or a heavily weighted branch can be supported if you are reaching your 20-25% of allotted removal.
• Keep in mind that removing these larger branches will also remove lots of smaller branches. Removing sail branches and heading off lateral branches may complete your 20-25% for the year, but it will make a bigger impact on fixing your tree’s shape than taking lots of smaller branches.

In our fence line tree situation, we were also pruning the tree so that the farmer’s (excessively, in my opinion) large tractors and planting/harvesting equipment could pass by easily since we knew the farmers on either side of the fence line might just damage the tree if it was in their way too much. This has resulted in the tree’s shape being rather inaccessible for harvesting both scion and future fruit crops, so we now need both ladders and humans who are willing to climb around in the tree!

FUTURE WINTERS: Choosing What to Remove During Years 2+ of Rejuvenation Pruning

• Reminder: you are planning 5+ years into the future and the renewal process must be slow and steady for success. Additionally, don’t forget that 1/3 rule for the size of the limbs at your pruning junctures!
• Work at opening the canopy as outlined above: sail branches, dead wood, broken branches, heading off lateral (scaffold) branches and removing rubbing branches are your highest priorities if any of these still remain after year 1.
• Next, consider removing scaffold branches that are shading large areas of the tree from getting sunlight in order to begin reaching towards your hypothetical cat-throwing open canopy test.
• Branches that are growing too close to the ground or too high can be removed to improve shape.
• Branches that are growing inwards as well as water sprouts**.
• What constraints might be in place for the landowner (if not your land) and future usability and ease of access for yourself to get scion, budwood or fruit from the tree.
• **Water sprouts!! Often there aren’t many water sprouts on neglected trees, so this is something you will begin dealing with in the summers and in years 2+ of your rejuvenation process after your initial pruning has triggered the vegetative growth response from your tree. In a standard tree rejuvenation process you will want to remove most water sprouts gradually (some could also be trained into lateral branches as you desire) and stop new ones from getting established by pinching them off when you see them in the summer. However, this new growth (and any other new 1-year growth) can be used as grafting material for either summer budwood or dormant scion the following spring. If you are hoping to collect dormant scion in the spring during the year after your first dormant pruning session, you won’t want to pinch/prune off all of this new growth during any summer pruning (if there is way more than you need, you can remove as you see fit, leaving what you need). Remember, any time you want to save propagation material, be sure to take it before you prune for the season!

Now, back to your old tree’s first year of rejuvenation: once you have removed your approximate 25% of the tree for this first year, let it be, even if it seems like there is still lots to be done. You don’t want to damage the tree, and the pruning you’ve done will encourage some new growth this season! Go back inside and get cozy with some mulled cider or hot cocoa – you’ve earned it after an afternoon of pruning!

SUMMER #1: What to Expect After the 1^st Year Dormant Prune

Visit your tree in the early summer to check and make note of the response to your pruning - you should see that healthy new growth!

Typically, this flush of new shoots that have come from your dormant pruning are something you’ll want to keep pinched back while they’re small, tender and green (easy to remove via pinching), or you’ll prune them out in July as part of summer pruning if you aren’t regularly inspecting your tree. But you may want to keep a few for two reasons:

1. You may want to renew a lateral, meaning you want to train the new shoot to replace an old blind (unfruitful) branch. In this case you may begin training (bending the new shoot in the direction you want) once it’s over a foot or so in length.
2. Grafting! This new growth can be used in mid-to-late August to do your own summer bud grafting (you’ll need to have established some rootstocks wherever you want your new trees to grow), or if you are enlisting our custom grafting services (please contact us directly about this), it will be perfectly aged and ready to harvest as scion (also called scionwood) in late winter. You can visit our Grafting 101 page here to learn more about scion and budwood, and watch this video to learn what scion is and how to collect and store it so that it can be used for dormant grafting.

It can be rewarding to see your work pay off as you go through the full process of rejuvenating an old apple tree, but if you only wanted propagation material to use for grafting, you don’t necessarily need to continue through all four+ years of saving your old tree. Once you’ve seen successful grafts, you can switch your focus to caring for your new youngins and allow nature to take its course with the old tree.

However, if you want to reap the benefit and continue revitalizing your favoured old tree, (which I highly recommend!), you’ll continue slowly reshaping the tree over the years, keeping the 3 golden rules in mind:

• never more than 25% in a season
• dormant pruning triggers vegetative growth
• summer pruning removes vegetative growth and prepares the tree for fruit production

Don’t forget to follow up to read our Summer Pruning blog post in June/July 2025, and best of luck with your old trees!

This 5 part blog series began by focusing on young trees and is intended to help new and intermediate growers who are beginning their orchard journey. Posts will follow the following approximate topic list and timing below.

Post 1: Planning Your Most Important Spring Orchard Task

Post 2: Spring Pruning: Fruit Trees

Post 3: Pruning Berry Bushes & Vines

Post 4: Pruning An Old, Neglected Apple Tree (that’s this post!)

Post 5: Summer Pruning (June or July 2025)