It is not usually necessary to turn water sprouts into fruiting units as many apple varieties bear best flower buds on undisturbed second year wood (the moderately vigorous annual shoots). Unless you are talking about espaliers. There are also varieties that bear their best apples on the tips of last years wood. I never need to create bud wood by heading back water sprouts- never. Not with any species. It is probably something I could use with super vigorous and vertical growers like N. Spy but I don't have time to keep coming back and prefer just to festoon uprights in the winter. The following winter they've sent up more uprights from the bent wood which I remove all but least vigorous and next harvest season the lower part of bent shoots usually have fruit. After a couple years of doing this overexcited growth usually calms down. There are many ways to skin a cat. Some take more time.

Thanks for the advice; otherwise, I wouldn't have thought about fruit sunburn. It seems like pruning to a main leader will be best for my dwarf Goldrush. Since it has such a short growth potential, I guess I will just let the first tier of branches start 18 inches above the graft union. Each year thereafter I think I should be able to prune and train the leader for growing another 18 inches before letting each following tier of branching to develop. I was glad the instuctions sent with the tree, indicated that it will always need to be staked. Knowing that will keep me from making a mistake by expecting it's roots to develop well enough to support this tree. With the semi-dwarf sized Fuji apple tree, I planned to begin 30 inches above the graft union for the first tier of branching, and each time thereafter space the next tier of branching about 18 to 20 inches above that. It is not yet clear to me as to how the tree will grow and react if I try to prevent it from growing above 10 feet tall. Of course while the Fuji apple tree is growing in a pot over the next couple of years that should not be a concern. After that though, if it develops well enough, and thereafter enters into full enough dormant state, well enough, I plan to try and safely plant it in the ground. Once planted in the ground, and it reaches 10 feet tall, I am wondering if I can just keep pruning out any new buds which would otherwise allow the tree to keep growing higher. Hopefully I will not find that each pruning job thereafter becomes to demanding for me to expect that I will be able to keep the tiers of branches from spreading more wide than what looks best with the tree's main leader and tier structure.

Grandmapoo: Pruning grapes is simple once you have experience, but not starting out. If you already have significant new growth and there are no fruit clusters, you should still do a major pruning this yr. If there are no fruit clusters now, a major pruning now will set you up for a good crop next yr. If there are fruit clusters now, then you will have to decide between some fruit this yr or getting setup right for the future. I know it's going to be hard to do. But here's how to get set up for many yrs of fine fruit and easy pruning. Cut your vines back right now to one main bare trunk with no side branches that runs from the ground up to the top wire on your trellis. You will think you've killed it. But very soon you will get a lot of new shoots arising from the top of this trunk. Train at least some of them along the top wire of your trellis or over the top of whatever your vines will use for support. Next spring prune off all but four of the canes that form this summer. Those four canes will produce your crop next summer. Each yr more new canes will grow. Each spring you prune out all of the canes that fruited the yr before and all but four of the new canes that you save to fruit the next yr. I know it sounds hard now, but after a few yrs of doing it right, you will call it simple also. It will not hurt your vines to cut off everything right now except one main trunk on each vine. Within a month you will have glorious new growth getting ready to fruit next summer. The Fruitnut

Would someone mind sharing if there is a way to get my flf back to the condition that it was in when I first brought it home? For the most part its been doing well, does not appear to be growing. When reduced to its elemental form, elevating your tree to a higher state of vitality is going to be a function of how good you are at providing cultural conditions in the plant's sweet spot, instead of close to or beyond the limits it's (genetically) programmed to tolerate. So, it can be done fairly easily, but you'll need to make some adjustments if the decline is to be reversed. If a plant is truly not growing, it is not making more energy than it's using, and that's a bad place to be ..... for a plant. When I brought it home in September it was much fuller near the base of each secondary branch. I have a good handle on watering and it is in a well draining mix from a greenhouse. When it was deemed time to water I would do so and then within a day or two it would drop a few leaves. This trend continued until I started adding foliage pro to each watering. I’m really annoyed by that because I was assured that the tree had plenty of fertilizer in the pot, I can even see the little green balls all over in the growing medium. I am thinking that I could have avoided it losing the ~30 leave it lost slowly after each watering before introducing foliage pro, back in December. Since using foliage pro I have had zero leaves drop. Some nutrients, like nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and magnesium are mobile in the plant. That is to say the plant can "steal" these nutrients from existing foliage and move it to where it's needed to support branch extension and growth of new leaves. Other nutrients, like calcium and several micronutrients are regarded as immobile in tissues and must be in the nutrient stream at all times in order for normal growth to occur. If the FP fertilizer curbed leaf loss, it's a good bet the leaves were being exploited for their nutrients and other bio-compounds prior to being shed. I would like to know the best time and if someone could also give me an idea on where to make the cuts for the hard prune that would be great too. I live in Chicago and all posts I’ve read say that late June would be best for a hard prune. I’m willing to do a hard prune, I’m excited to do it and see the rewards. I just need more information on how to do it properly. Good to see you come pre-armed with some knowledge of how to work with the plant's natural rhythms in order to help the plant recover faster from any extensive work you might do - primarily repotting and hard pruning. I think we're gradually changing minds with regard to the idea that a plant's foliage is sacred and not to be cut off under any circumstances. Growth is often viewed as so special that the plants appearance is sacrificed on its altar. I would do the pruning around Father's Day/ Summer Solstice. As soon as the plant starts to back-bud - you can repot (if it needs it, and it probably does). The pruning will be really easy and possibly done in 2 stages, depending on how close to the trunk the foliage is on each branch. Why not send a set of 4 images of the tree, rotating the tree 90* for each subsequent image in early June. Basically, you'll choose the leader, then prune all second order branches back to 1 or 2 leaves. The leader will be one node higher than the second order branches. A hard pruning represents a setback for the plant because you're removing growth that's been paid for. Living in CHI, you'll want to let your tree grow wild (unpruned or pinched) from Sep 1 to at least Jun 1. Then, pinch religiously from Jun 1 to Sep 1, such that when ANY branch shows a 3rd leaf that's open and moving toward maturity, pinch that branch back to 2 leaves. Soon, you'll be removing branches to let light and air movement into the canopy because it's too full. I have to do that to ALL of my trees older than a couple of years for health and to slow growth. BTW - your tree appears to have a very good basic structure to build on - so, good choice. Al