By Hank
Cheshire,
United Kingdom 
I hope it’s not too late to complete the pruning of my small apple tree and would like to do it properly this year. I gather one should keep the centre of the tree clear and cut out any crossing branches, but there must be more to it than this.
I would very much appreciate any help you guys could give me - I’m afraid I’m about as good a gardener as I am a cook, which is not saying much.
Photo below ( I hope )
12 Dec, 2019
Answers
Its not too late.
here is the link to the RHS advice pages.
I used it many yrs ago and it really helped.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profile?pid=90
12 Dec, 2019
Have just noticed, the photo seems to show one trunk at 45 degrees and one straight up - which is the correct one. Seems 2 photos have intermingled somehow.
But little problem, thanks for the help - I’ll be into it if it ever stops raining.
12 Dec, 2019
Good at photography too then Hank ? Lol .
15 Dec, 2019
Not much good at anything these days, well past my best.
16 Dec, 2019
Hank, mine looked like your tree in 2018 winter, pruned hard and made it more manageable for me to reach as I'm also a tad past my best
The hard prune produced a lot of "water shoots" in Spring so i had to prune those out
However it all turned out well and had a lovely crop that I could reach to pick
Here's a link to my blog post about it
https://growsonyou.com/grandad_gardener/blog/32717-apple-pruning-result
17 Dec, 2019
Thanks very much for that G, will look into it later.
18 Dec, 2019
Previous question
« I have a two year old monkey puzzle tree.i repotted this year into slightly larger...
Next question
Identification required please … lost label and poor memory ! »
I think you are off to a good start. You aren't too late. Cut out any skinny scraggly looking branches that won't produce any apples.
12 Dec, 2019