pruning the Bramley

Sorry about the wind noise, it gets better as the video goes on. Stephen Hayes of Fruitwise Heritage Apples advises on pruning the Bramley apple and other apple trees with a similar habit of growth (vigorous, triploid, tip bearer). Part 1, in part 2 the actual pruning will be demonstrated.

Bramley is a large, heavy-cropping 'cooking' apple, very popular in Britain for baking (hollow out centre, fill with soft brown sugar, sherry and sultanas, bake in medium for 1 hour) making apple sauce, apple crumble and all sorts of apple cookery where a frothy apple is required. As I have mentioned, it is not the only cooker and should not necesarily be the first choice due to it's size and the way it grows.

A common mistake is to plant a Bramley on a medium or large rootstock in a small garden, find it is growing too strongly for the espace available, and to attempt to restrict the size of the tree by pruning back the leaders. This usually ends badly! The fruit comes mainly on the tips, unlike most aples which fruit mainly on spurs.

If you plant a Bramley apple in a small garden, I reccomend the ultra-dwarfing rootstock M27 (NOT M26-that's MUCH bigger) or M9. If you have plenty of space, a Bramley on regular rootstock such as MM106 or MM111 can make a huge standard tree requiring little care and big enough to sit in the shade of and hang a swing from. These tutorials are about the practical management of fruiting tres on the assumption you want to get the most fruit from them.

Please note, the tree in the video would be twice the size if it wasn't in very light sandy soil. We have some other Bramleys on MM106 stock in better soil which are much bigger although 2 years younger.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• fruitwise
• prune
• pruning
• apple
• tree
• orchard
• bramley
• stephen
• hayes

[stephenhayesuk]

Hiya Dance Gypsy. I got into youtube after a friend in the English folk dance group with whom I play mandolin suggested i put up a film of the side dancing.

I did, and got hooked on youtube. I, like most people, have more than one interest. I play guitar and mandolin, I also planted and manage an orchard.

I found few apple tree pruning videos so I thought I'd share my experience.

The guitar stuff is for fun. The apple stuff is for education.

[bluzy25]

Hey your post are great! Keep up the good work in play and knowledge.

[dancegypsy]

I notice in your thumbnail that you're playing guitar. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you've posted to YouTube, as I discovered this one as a fluke. While watching a totally unrelated video, it scrolled by as a YT offering at the end. I came to YT over a year ago in search of flamenco dance videos, my favorite musicians... and guitarists. Serendipitous that I found you, perhaps!

[dancegypsy]

Hey, I LOVED this video! So nice to have a pruning tutorial, of any sort. I have no fruit trees in my suburban backyard, but I never clip a branch of any tree or shrub without first researching its growth habits and how it should be pruned. My father almost killed two glorious Camphor trees by improper pruning so I learned early on the importance of knowing what you're doing. Very interesting video for me. Thank you!