Chris. Your tree looks perfect to me. I started bending my pear limbs after they were thicker than yours and the task was tougher. Although the bending was harder the results were great in that my two pear trees are full of blooms this spring. I’m curious as to which apple variety you’re bending. I’m starting a few spur (low vigor) apples on the M111 hoping that the tree is a more manageable size. My other apples are M111/Bud9 interstem/high vigor varieties. Bill
Your tree does look very good. My comments about full sun weren’t directed at you specifically. It is that I have some shading on my property and think I am not getting as much fruit production as a result, evidenced by my unshaded trees that are quite productive.
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Bill, the tree in the picture is a Pink Lady, I also have Goldrush, Crimson Crisp, and Suncrisp on M-111 pruned the same way. I am a pretty new grower and I think got a little carried away pulling down the limbs, in the future except for.the very top limbs, my goal will be to get the limbs slightly below horizontal going more for the solex style pruning that Alan mentioned a while back. It seems when the limbs are pulled.straight down, they stop growing, stay thin and may not be able to handle much of a fruit load here is a picture of the same tree taken today
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I would remove entirely the large branches on top. Pulling them down will not reduce access to the roots and you will find they will continue to imbalance the tree by pulling excessive and disproportionate amounts invigorating water, nitrogen, etc from the ground. I don’t know if continued removal of the water sprouts coming from them will help rectify the situation over time but it is generally recommended you simply remove them.
Generally you never want to leave a branch on any tree more than half the diameter of the trunk at point of attachment and it is often recommended not leaving branches more than a third. On less vigorous varieties of apple such as Goldrush and spur types half is fine.
Keeping the relative diameter of branches less goes a long way in producing precocious compact trees.
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Your right Alan, that tree is top heavy and those thick branches at the top got to go. I knew that but could not bring myself to prune then out because they had a bunch of fruiting spurs. Fruit trees growing requires alot of patience which is not my strong suit. Lost my entire peach and plum crop last year to a late freeze, I will need counseling if that happens again this year.
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I have the tall spindle set up like your tree. And at first hesitated cutting out the older thicker branches, but it doesn’t work out well with shade issues and the development of newer fruiting branches. And over all fruit vigor in the trees.
I have a related question on bending branches. I pulled Apple and cherry branches down close to horizontal on my trees. Apple was planted last year and cherry this year. I think bending branches had a negative effect on the trees. They sort of stopped growing. Haven’t had any new growth in months now. Is it possible that bending branches can make the tree into a state of shock? Fertilizer wouldn’t remedy the situation right?
Intention behind bending branches was not to promote fruit, I was just trying to keep the trees short and manageable and keep an open center.
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Mm… anybody? 
Trees stop growing in late summer, they are growing roots instead. Maybe it is the timing of when you did the bending.
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Thank you. That’s good news! Hopefully they’ll pick up growing next season.
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Here is a pretty good article on branch bending on apple trees: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/bend_branches_now_to_encourage_flower_bud_initiation_in_high_density_apple
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They may pick up by sending vertical shoots up at the point branches are bent- a typical response that makes the practice somewhat controversial. It is best to wait until trees have almost achieved desired size before bending branches below horizontal. Or at least until they are ready to hold a good crop. The more upright the branch the faster it grows, as a general rule.
You can let a single shoot grow up from each bent branch to eventually spread a bit above horizontal if you need trees to get bigger before they start cropping.
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Will try doing that next season if it decides to grow again.
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Bending down encourages the branch to put energy into next seasons flower buds instead of vegetative growth. If your branches are loaded with flowers next spring the trees could be stunted by trying to produce fruit before they are is adequately established. If they flower profusely you may want to cut the branches back and remove all the flowers. .
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Is cutting back necessary or can I just remove the flowers? On couple of branches I have successful grafts.
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It is not necessary, just might be helpful but you can certainly leave the grafts alone. Also, my advice is not as reliable as it might be if I actually was able to see your trees and soil and knew the rootstocks.
A healthy shot of quick release nitrogen at first signs of growth might also be helpful.
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Another thing you can try is to tie the branches back up above horizontal- or at least try it on a few trees and compare. The downward bending branches may continue to focus on creating flowers next season even after you remove the fruit. I have no experience with your situation, so understand, I’m just offering ideas that you can match with what your are seeing.
I’ve often had to bring back apple trees that were allowed to become excessively spurred up with flower buds by removing spurs (short pieces of fruiting wood) instead of just fruit because the spurs pulled too much energy from trees even without fruit (making fruit buds for next year instead of vegetative wood). How this relates to your trees, I don’t know, but if the bent branches are runted out for the same reason, cutting back wood or lifting branches up may be helpful.
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There are many important things to learn when one starts growing fruit/trees. I’m still learning the art of when and how to bend limbs but I think it is one of the most important skills to learn. I’m getting better at bending but I’m still learning.
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Don’t forget that a lot of apples consider ANY amount of water shortage a sign that growing season is over. It can be difficult to get them going again once they stop. It was almost definitely coincidental with your branch bending.
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