Forgive me for bumping but I fell off the first page without a response. Thanks!

jayco:

Others may be having my problem, I get nothing when I try to pull up your photos. But I'll give what I can.

Your first three branches don't need to be evenly spaced. But you can improve the spacing by tying them off to the ground in a better position. Further up chose evenly spaced branches, if possible, with the widest crotch angles possible. If necessary tie these off to the ground at about 30 degrees above horizontal.

The main leader need not be straight.

Another pointer might be to remove any branch that becomes more than half the diameter of the leader.

As pointed out earlier Goldrush is low vigor. So you shouldn't need to prune off much except for any overly vigorous branches. Once fruiting starts the tree will slow down.

Someone else may have a different plan. That's OK. You will have fruit soon unless you prune too much. Many other plans will work.

Goldrush almost prunes itself. It doesn't produce many oversized branches and for the first couple of years may require almost no guidance. 1/2 diameter branches are definately OK for such a spurry productive tree. Often for the older bearing trees all I need do is prune for vigor, reduce old spur wood and cut back branches to an upward growing shoot. That and remove oversized branches from the top of the tree to maintain the CT shape.

Thanks for your replies.

If there is no need to prune I'd be happy not to. So you think the branches up top near the leader are okay to leave?

Is there any general sort of thing I ought to prune besides dead, diseased, or crossing branches?

I know -- I'm an anxious new apple grower. Thanks for bearing with me, I truly appreciate the advice.

jayco:

I'd take out the upper branches that have tight crotches. Other than that you probably don't need to do anything. Less pruning early in the life of the tree usually means sooner to fruiting.

{{gwi:78087}}

Never was able to see the actual photos but fruitnut's advice sounds right to me. With Goldrush you are best off maintaining a surplus of scaffolds even when it starts bearing. Gradually thin them as tree fills out with secondary branching. Goldrush usually needs to be coaxed to spread as it bears lots of fruit on thin wood, weighs the branches down and they loose vigor.

The vast majority of varieties I manage are best pruned as little as possible until trees start bearing, generally removing nothing but oversized (diameter-wise) branches. For some spurry and precoscious varieties (Goldrush, Braeburn, Empire, Ark Black) a 2-1 ratio is best but more vigorous varieties like Fuji, Northern Spy, and Baldwin are better pruned by eliminating all branches more than a third the diameter of the trunk at point of attachment.

Fuji will bear earlier IME if you thin surplus scaffolds before it starts bearing because it is so vigorous and weedy that it doesn't bring adequate light to its spurs. Summer pruning helps with trees like this also. I'm talking about the third or 4th year of a semi-dwarf to standard, vigorous, not yet bearing tree.

Try this again. It was here last night, gone this morning.

{{gwi:78087}}

Eric

I'd find a straight post and tape it very tight to the trunk with vinyl electric tape to straighten it.

You must be careful to maintain central leader dominance which may require removing the top 4 branches.

Thanks, Eric, for assisting me with the picture!

Harvestman, are you talking about a non-stake post, i.e. just something wrapped up to the trunk not attached to the ground? If so, how long do I leave it on, and would it not be a hazard to the tree in high wind?

Also, how do I tell if I need to remove some of those top branches to maintain the leader? Right now the leader is about 18 inches taller than anything else. So when do I know I need to make cuts?

I don't know if the post should be a stake as well- probably. I do the least amount of input necessary and if the splint can do the job without being a stake I go that way. If the tree will lean without the splint being anchored,make it a stake. Tape it tightly and after first growth surge you should have accomplished straightening by late spring.

It is hard to get a complete feel for the tree from the photograph, but I'd actually probably just remove the second tier of branches right now even though that's not my general approach. I don't like the way the upper branches are going to be shading the lower ones. They look to have the same diameter and length and the lower branches will not develop secondary branches in this scenario- they will be hell bent for light.

Because you can stay right on top of it, I suppose you could cut back the upper branches now and than continue to hold them back with summer pruning. I don't manage trees that way because I'm managing too many.