I believe beginners are usually best served to remove only all branches that exceed 1/2 the diameter of the trunk at these branches point of attachment to the trunk and otherwise let the tree grow until it begins to bear fruit. That and broken and rubbing branches. Only certain varieties that do not willingly produce adequate secondary branching are likely to benefit from heading back and in this case it's best to do the heading cuts in annual wood (wood that grew the previous year) after trees have begun to leaf out in mid spring. This is more likely to generate usable secondary branches as I understand it. For the most vigorous varietes, like Fuji and Gala removing all branches exceeding 1/3 the diameter of the trunk is the best way to construct a well balanced, productive and early fruiting tree. Excessively diametered branches always take longer to fruit and require more space to be fruitful because of their greater access to the root system. Kindof like the difference between standard trees and dwarfs, but on a branch. They are also prone to making weak unions to the trunk that can break when they come into bearing. My recommendatins here are based on managing trees that are grafted on rootstocks at least as vigorous as M7 (semi-dwarf). I first learned of the ratio method almost 20 years ago in an article written by Bas van den Ende in Pomona who at the time was managing thousands of commercial acres of pears and apples in the northwest (he's in Australia now and is a very famous orchard consultant). As I understand it, the practice of automatically heading back branches of establishing trees on most varieties has been abandoned for some time by expert orchard managers. B. van dan Ende wrote a very interesting article about managing fruiting wood on pears in this months Good Fruit Grower magazine if anyones interested..

Even a dwarf needs to be at least an inch in diameter before you should let it produce a single fruit in my opinion. I have tons of experience, but unfortunately not with fully dwarfing rootstock (M9). I manage a lot of M26, however, which are on the vigorous side of dwarf and they can runt out if they are allowed to produce when still very small. I wouldn't remove the fruit- I'd remove the flowers. Where you top, which isn't usually necessary with a fully dwarfing tree as I understand it, is where you want to produce your second tier of branches. I'd say 2' above last branch on first tier. However this kind of structure isn't needed for dwarfs and reading commercial guidelines it seems best method is only removing oversized branches- more than half the diameter of trunk at point of attachment. Very little pruning is needed for dwarfs and almost none while training. Any pruning should be done in summer with the thumb and finger to steer growth without setting tree back.

I've only done this once, on a plum, and I did just as you described. In fact, I grafted a whip and tongue with a chip back up and ended up cutting off the chip when it sprouted as well as an extra branch on the w&t scion. That tree is in its third season and seems very happy. M

I have had very good luck with wip grafts with older scion wood. If everything else is good, timing and technique I think you will be fine . Top working strong trees was almost 100%. Small rootstock was slightly less effective with old scion, but very adequate. On a very mature crab apple I actually added fruitwood to and got a couple apples on first years grafts, and a couple more on second year grafts. I have high expectations for the upcoming third year. Some of the pundits on this site called bs, but it happened. Go for it you might gain a year or two on fruiting. Conventional small rootstock will not support fruit, but it can be done for sure. My example may have been more luck than brains, because I did not even know it was fruiting wood until I saw the blossoms, and I was a newbie grafter, but I have learned a lot from this sight since.