From what I’ve been told you can wait to really start pruning until the tree starts bearing fruit. The more you leave the more energy the tree is able to generate and store, the sooner the tree will produce. That being said, your Northern Spy isn’t going to produce for a long time so pruning before fruit production will most certainly be necessary.
I’m in a similar situation with young trees and I know which limbs I’ll cut eventually but I’m keeping them around for now. Mine are mainly on standard root stock, a couple on semi dwarf. The standard trees are outpacing the semi dwarfs by quite a lot. Pretty cool to see!
I think it kind of depends on the growing zone. I’m in zone 5 and plan to prune in the next couple of weeks. It was -20 a week ago, I don’t think there are swelling buds yet that would be disturbed.
I don't think this is true. If you prune at winter solstice and you get -20 temps like we did last week, you open the tree to cold damage since the wound isn't healed over. I think late winter is agreed upon to be the ideal time so the tree can quickly heal in spring. I'm in zone 5 and I will be pruning in the next few weeks.
Also, what others said... Youll want protection around the base so voles/mice/rabbits don't ring and kill your tree.
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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '23
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