Pruning Apple and Pear Trees in Winter

Why winter is the right moment

An apple or pear tree in January is an honest thing. There are no leaves to hide behind, so you can see every crossing branch, every rubbed wound, and every gap that let light into the middle of the tree last summer. Pruning while the tree is dormant means you can read its shape properly and make decisions calmly rather than hacking at whatever you happen to find. Wounds made now are sealed by the flush of spring growth, and the tree has a full season to respond.

Timing matters. Apples can be tackled from late November through to early March, but choose a dry, mild day and avoid periods of hard frost, when the wood is brittle and cuts tear rather than slice. Pears are best left until late winter, from mid-February into March. They are more prone to silver leaf and bacterial canker, and pruning wounds heal fastest once the sap is beginning to stir. Never prune in autumn, when the tree is shutting down but spores are still about.

One rule before you start: never remove more than a quarter of the canopy in a single winter. A neglected allotment tree can be brought back into shape over two or three seasons, and it will thank you for the patience.

First, know what sort of tree you have

Most apples and nearly all pears are spur bearers. Their fruit is carried on short, knobbly spurs on wood that is two years old and older. These are the trees that respond beautifully to the classic winter routine: shorten last season's growth and the tree answers by building more spurs. The more spurs you have, the more fruit you get.

A few varieties carry much of their crop at the tips of last year's shoots instead. Among apples, 'Discovery' and 'Worcester Pearmain' both lean this way, and some pears, including 'Doyenné du Comice', behave similarly. If you own one of these, thin out the framework, take out anything dead or crossing, and leave the young shoots alone. If you are unsure which sort you have, prune lightly for a year and watch where the fruit sets before committing.

Shaping an open goblet

Picture a wine glass. The stem is the trunk, the bowl is an open centre of five to seven main branches, evenly spaced around it and angled outward. No branch should sit directly above another, and none should crowd the middle. Aim for roughly 20–25cm of clear space between branches.

Light reaching the centre of the tree ripens the wood and colours the fruit; air moving through it dries the leaves quickly, which means less scab, less canker, and fewer problems with mildew. So remove anything growing sharply inward, any branch that crosses and rubs another, and any weak, spindly growth that is going nowhere useful. Cut it out right back to the branch it springs from, not part of the way along it.

The cuts that build fruiting spurs

• Leaders — the main shoots made last year at the tips of your framework branches — shorten by about a third, cutting to an outward-facing bud so the new growth continues away from the centre.
• Laterals — the side shoots off those branches — reduce to three or four buds. These short stubs are what turn into fruiting spurs over the next couple of years.
• Old spur systems — once spurs become crowded and twiggy, thin a few out each winter. This keeps fruit size up and stops the tree exhausting itself.
• Rubbish wood — dead, diseased, damaged, crossing, and inward-growing branches, plus suckers from below the graft and vigorous upright water shoots, unless you want one to fill an awkward gap, in which case shorten it by half.

Make every cut about 5mm above a bud, sloping gently away from it so water runs off.

Clean cuts, sharp tools, tidy habits

Use bypass secateurs for anything up to a finger's thickness, loppers up to about 2.5cm, and a pruning saw beyond that. Cut back to the branch collar, the slight swelling where a branch meets the trunk, rather than flush with it, and never leave a stub. There is no need to paint wounds; a clean cut seals itself.

Clean your blades with methylated spirits between trees, particularly if you have found canker, and burn or bin any cankered prunings. Healthy wood can be shredded and composted or used as a mulch under the hedge. Winter pruning is also the moment to check tree ties are not strangling the trunk and to firm any loose stakes.

Pears, and keeping the tree going

Pears are slower and more stubborn than apples. Prune them lightly, remove less than you think you should, and expect a flush of water shoots if you cut hard. Keep the centre open, shorten only what genuinely needs it, and take your time over the shape.

In spring, mulch around the tree with well-rotted compost, keeping it clear of the trunk, and check growth. An established tree putting on less than 15–20cm of new shoot a year probably wants a feed. Then step back every few cuts and look. The real test of a good winter prune is simple: from a few metres away, you should be able to see sky through the middle of the tree.