The orchard had to be rejuvenated. 550 apple trees had not been touched for 5 years. The apple trees were covered with bittersweet, poison ivy, and grape vine. The trees might have a smattering of walnut sized apples growing on the trees. We started pruning back the trees in late summer. So our task was to begin pruning to allow the apple trees to bear apples. This is what we learned.

The goal was to clean up the trees. To remove the bittersweet we cut the vine at the base and than cut it periodically along the vine almost every three feet to be able to pull it out of the trees.
At that point we couldn't always remove all the vines before pruning, so we proceeded with pruning the trees.

There are seven basic rules of pruning which will be listed below. But for our purposes here, we had to remove all dead, diseased and crossed branches. After this we had to think of our eventual goal of having fruit grow on the trees.
Sunlight is the friend of apples. To have your apple tree bear fruit you need to get sunlight in the branches of the trees. New growth also needs to be promoted because this is where the new fruit buds will be developed. Sunlight turns buds into fruit buds. Fruit buds are the fat buds. Pruning should allow sun light to enter the tree. Shade is the enemy, fruit buds will not develop in the shade and neither will apples. Pruning stimulates new shoots which produce fruit buds the following year and bear fruit the next year. So even while you are just trying to clean up the tree by pruning, stimulating new growth is also important.

The Seven Commandments of Pruning Apple Trees: (Complete in this order)

1. Remove 2 or 3 of the largest limbs in the top two thirds of the tree.

2. Use the 2 to 1 rule Remove any limb that is half the diameter or larger than the central leader or trunk of the tree. A branch of this size chokes out the leader not allowing the tree to develop optimal fruiting. Use bevel cuts to remove these limbs (Cut branch at angle, do not make cuts parallel to the sky).

3. Avoid heading cuts-cut the entire branch back at the stem that it comes from.

4. Avoid complex branches in the lower 1/3 of the tree. As branches on the lower part of the tree get older and bigger they develop additional branches. This is what we call a complex branch. Remove them where possible.

5. Remove downward hanging branches. They get too much shade and do touch the ground if they happen to get fruit.

6. Remove most shoots that are growing straight up. Leave some shoots to become the new growth.

7. Leave one shoot as a central leader-do not prune it.

These are the rules that will help sunshine to fall on all your branches, to encourage new growth, which is future apples, and to improve air circulation for fungusy disease protection.