Kittie: Your tree looks a little overly vigorous in the top. But First cut out any limbs that are in your way, crossing, or otherwise out of place. This would include the branch you mentioned. Either cut them out completely or cut them back to a less vigorous lateral shoot that is headed in the direction you want a limb to be. Then cut back the most vigorous shoots in the top of the tree to less vigorous side shoots or remove some of them entirely. Do all of this cutting in August only if you live in CA. If you live elsewhere, I would do it after you harvest this yrs crop. In CA you can get serious disease problems by pruning apricot any time but late summer. Each yr after this continue to cut out the most vigorous shoots in the top of the tree each summer. Basically the first rule in pruning a tree like this is to cut out any branch you don't like and do it every yr. If you do that the tree will not get too big and you won't be removing too much at once. The Fruitnut

Nice looking tree! Now ask 100 different people how to prune it and you'll get 100 different answers. Here's what I would do: 1) Remove any branches that are more than half the size of the main trunk, a.k.a., the central leader. If you don't, such vigorous branches will compete for dominance with the central leader and shade the rest of the tree too much, which will result in less fruit and/or inferior quality fruit. 2) Remove any damaged or diseased wood. I don't see any on the picture, but take a look and make sure. 3) If you would like to control the size of your tree, then lop off the top of the central leader and all branches as high as you can reach. This will help keep your fruit closer to the ground so you won't need ladders to grab it all. 4) Use spreaders, weights, or tie down all branches other than the central leader more towards horizontal. The closer your branches get to horizontal, the more sunlight they will get and the more fruit they will produce. Keep the branches down for a year or two until the bark grows enough to hold them down that way permanently. And that is about it for the basics. There are 100 other things that you *could* do, but those are the basic things that you should consider to achieve a more productive tree. Happy pruning!

This tree, like most other trees, will be stronger and less likely to fail from snow or wind loads if it has a central leader. The lack of a single leader will result in forked leaders that are more prone to failure. Two common methods for ensuring a central leader are pruning and tying limbs down. A limb growing at a greater angle to the trunk is less likely to outgrow the leader. In other words, if the branch has a good crotch angle and doesn't curve sharply upwards, it is much less likely to have dominance over the leader. Gently tying down side branches to improved crotch angles and reduce the chances of multiple leaders is common practice. You should be able to find many references on the web with a few google searches. There are various methods and tools (i.e. branch spreaders) used for this. You could also check previous posts on the fruit forum for advise about how to accomplish this. Good crotch angles are usually between about 45 to 60 degrees. Different types of trees will tend to have different ranges of crotch angles. But the sharper the angle, the more likely the branch is to fail with loading. Correcting the branch structure is MUCH easier if you tackle the problem when the tree is young. Cleveland Pears are supposed to be somewhat better about breaking apart than the Bradford Pear, but proper pruning and possibly thinning would likely greatly benefit these trees as they grow. In addition to poor branch angles, one huge problem with Bradfords is that they grow so many limbs in such a small area that they cannot build up enough wood around the branch base to support the weight. Eventually, the tree pops itself apart. Though Clevelands may be better about this, I would still keep an eye out for this type of behavior and eliminate problems before they occur. I cannot tell much about your picture. It is too dark for me to really see what's going on, but you can tell if there are narrow crotch angles by checking to see if the angle between the branch and the trunk is less than 45 degrees. Angles less than 35 degrees are definitely not acceptable.

Guessed you were in the UK from the background ;-) Good luck trying to get a medlar to do anything you want it too. You can already see it isn't as neat as your apple and pear. My best advice would be not to prune it at all unless you absolutely have to. They have the habit of producing new growth at bizarre angles from any cut you make, resulting in a crazy zigzag appearance. And don't get too excited about the fruit. I now regard mine as a conversation point and ornamental after trying to use the medlars themselves in various ways.