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..

Silent, I have 2 William's Pride. The second one was planted last year. Both were from bareroot,were tall over 4 ft at planting. I did not know about pruning at planting then. I did not like the way both trees were leaning. This year, I decided that it's not too late to correct the one I planted last year. I dug it up and replanted it about 3 weeks ago (kind of late to do that)and head cut it down to 3 1/2 ft. It does survive,leave out, straight and short. That's what I want my trees to grow, short and straight (if possible). I'll do some pruning to the older one this summer, too. Your tree's branches are a lot lower than I would prefer. You should decide if you want to do something to correct the tree this year or not. You may waste this year but may be better off in a long run. Randy, To me, William's Pride is a very good apple. The trees are very resistent to CAR (in my area). I don't have to spray Immunox on them. I gave the apples to two of my friends. Both said they were the best apples they have ever had (possibly because they're the first ripe on the tree apples they ever had). I think you'll like it.

We don't water it, as we get a mild amount of rain here. Not too much, but just enough to keep the soil a little moist. Our soil pH is 6.5. We have horrible clay soil that, when it gets dry, is like a rock. We don't have any soil imbalances that I know about. We tried some miracle-gro fruit tree fertilizer stakes that we got from our local nursery. The leaves don't have any mottling or spots or other imperfections. They are a light green color, as most plum tree leaves are. They look like these leaves http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRg2VR-rKLwEAAPVEqooo6rV1YWFDcYIQdquzJJWePLH4-x5OkZ Except without the plums, obviously. Now about the apple trees. The bigger one (GD) got the same fruit tree stakes but to no avail. Its leaves have cedar rust, but it is because our neighbors have juniper and cedar trees. It never affected the 6 huge and beautiful McIntosh and GD-Mutsu Hybrid trees we had at our old house, which is about 2 miles away from our current house with the same weather and soil conditions, and the trees were in the exact same amount of sun. There are no visible signs of pest or disease on any of the trees. the only things that have ever bothered them are japanese beetles, which we have only had twice, so that doesn't seem to be the problem. Our average temperature throughout the year is around 79. We get around 40 inches of rain per year and all the trees are in full-partial sun, leaning more towards full. What I am wondering is, do nurseries that supply local nurseries and garden stores with fruit trees, put some substance on/in the trees to force them to produce fruit? It seems like every tree i have ever had, produces fruit the very first year I plant it, then it starts up again 2-3 years later. Do you know the answer to this? Thanks again. Lydia

You might also consider removing the turf adjacent to your tree's trunk. The tree would fare better not having to compete with the surrounding vegetation, not to mention being severely damaged by your trimmer. Properly applied (over a wide area, not to deep, and not piled up against the trunk) mulch might also be a great idea.