Why the first three winters decide everything

The shape of a mature apple tree is settled long before it carries its first proper crop. A well-trained tree has a sturdy framework of branches able to carry heavy crops without splitting, and an open centre that lets light and air reach every leaf and fruit. Aim for the classic open-centred, or goblet, shape: a short clear leg of around 45–60cm, then three or four main branches spreading outward and upward at roughly 45 degrees, with nothing growing straight up the middle. Light in the centre means better colour, better ripening and far less scab and canker to worry about. Cider varieties — many of them vigorous and inclined to make leaf rather than fruit in their youth — benefit from this discipline more than almost anything else.

Start with a maiden whip

If you have planted a one-year-old maiden whip, your first job is a firm one. In late winter, before growth restarts, cut the main stem back to around 60–75cm above the ground — roughly 15cm above your intended clear leg — making the cut just above a bud and sloping very slightly away from it. This feels brutal. It is not. That single cut forces the tree to break three or four strong shoots just below it, rather than running away upward as one long stem. If your maiden already carries a few side shoots, keep the three or four best placed, remove the rest cleanly, and shorten the leader above them.

Stake the tree for its first three or four years, and tie it with a soft, wide tie that will not strangle the trunk as it thickens.

Choosing your framework branches

By the following winter you will have a cluster of new shoots to choose from, and you need to be ruthless. You want three, or at most four, spaced evenly around the trunk and rising at wide angles.

• Wide is strong. A branch leaving at 45 degrees or more knits into the trunk; a narrow, upright one stays weakly attached and will split under a crop.
• Spread them out. Ideally the branches are at least 15cm apart vertically on the trunk, so they do not swell into one another later.
• Look for balance. Choose shoots of similar vigour, so no single branch dominates and starves the rest.

Remove everything else while it is still thin enough for secateurs: the inward-growers, the crossers, the weak spindly ones, and especially any shoot competing with your chosen leader or thrusting straight up through the centre. Competing shoots ruin a shape faster than anything, because they take the sap and leave you with a crowded, shaded tree.

Building the framework winter by winter

For the next two or three winters the routine is much the same. On each of your main branches, shorten the previous year's extension growth by about a quarter to a third, cutting to an outward-facing bud so the branch keeps spreading rather than turning inward. Anything in the middle of the tree goes — you should be able to stand back and see daylight through the centre. Where a branch has thrown a strong upright shoot near its tip, take it out; that is the tree trying to revert to a central leader, and it will shade everything beneath it.

Keep the centre open for the life of the tree. As the branches thicken, remove any that are rubbing, crossing, or crowding the middle, cutting cleanly back to a branch or to the trunk rather than leaving a stub. Never leave a snag — it dies back, and canker moves in.

A little summer work goes a long way

Winter pruning makes wood; summer pruning makes fruit. In late July and August, go over the tree again and shorten the long, soft laterals that are not part of your framework back to four or five buds. Do not touch the leaders. This slows the tree down, opens it up and encourages the short fruiting spurs that will carry blossom the following spring. On a vigorous cider tree, this single pass in summer is often what turns a leafy young tree into a cropping one.

Tools, timing and the mistakes to avoid

Use sharp bypass secateurs for anything up to a finger's thickness, loppers above that, and a pruning saw for the heavier cuts of later years. Cut just above a bud, at a slight angle, and leave the branch collar — the raised ring where branch meets trunk — intact, because that is where the tree seals the wound.

• Prune in the dormant season, roughly November to late February, and never in hard frost when the wood is brittle.
• Do not over-prune. Taking off more than a quarter of the canopy at once pushes a mass of useless upright growth.
• Do not leave too many branches in year one. It is much easier to remove a young shoot than a mature limb.
• Keep spacing in mind. Bush apples want 3–4 metres between trees, so leave room for that goblet to fill out.

Do this patiently for three or four winters and you will have a tree with a frame you can trust for thirty years — one that carries a heavy crop of cider apples without a prop in sight, and lets you pick the whole of it from the ground or a short ladder.