You prune to renovate spurs, leaving small upright pencils and removing weak old spurs. Some varieties will bear best fruit on the two year wood of small uprights- these need to have bearing wood cycled in and out on a 2-year sched. with enough new shoots to replace the old.

I cannot help you with your question.

Rather, I am responding to Harvestman's response to your question.

I have done a fair amount of googling looking for information on how to prune my recently acquired mature apple trees, which are the opposite of yours in terms of the amount of attention they need (my trees have never been pruned).

The concept of âÂÂrenovating spursâ or âÂÂremoving weak spursâÂÂ, or wanting âÂÂuprightsâ (I thought the best branches were between 10 and 2 for strength) have not been addressed in any of the YouTube videos I have watched.

I am clearly displaying my ignorance here, which is kind of the point of this post. Is there a âÂÂgo tooâ reference text I can get that will explain all of these ideas and concepts in sufficient detail for me to get the information I need to deal with my individual situation.

I donâÂÂt want âÂÂpruning for dummiesâÂÂ, I can get that from you tube. I want âÂÂpruning for people that can read at at least a high school levelâÂÂ. Harvestman clearly knows what he is talking about, and although we can access his experience through this forum, it would be really great to have a really detailed reference book so we can take care of the easy stuff on our own, and hit Harvestman up with the really hard questions (not saying that your question in this post is unworthy).

I am just really tired of reading online pamphlets from the University of (insert state here) Extension on how to prune apple trees. They emphasize âÂÂhowâÂÂ, at this point I am more interested in âÂÂwhyâ because that will allow me to adapt procedures and techniques to my own situation.

Harvestman was getting at âÂÂwhyâ when he said âÂÂyou prune to renovate spursâÂÂ. Try googling âÂÂrenovate spursâ and see what you get (I did, you get nothing related to orchards).

So, I donâÂÂt want to highjack this thread into a debate on pruning books, but it may help us all to see what people think is the best text to help thomis out with his issue, and maybe a lot of us with our own questions.

Bas van den Ende has written articles for Good Fruit about pruning for spur renewal but they are no longer available on-line. His book on pruning pears and apples probably has most of the important info in it. You can order the book for $33 from Treefruit Magazine.

I could find no free source of this book or any of his articles on-line.