PRUNING IS a crucial step if you're hoping to pick apples that are perfect for pies and crumbles.

This takes careful planning: you will need to choose the right time of year, and consider which branches should stay and which need to go.

What's the best way to prune an apple tree?

To begin, be clear about why you're pruning – you should be aiming for health over looks.

So, pruning is about making space for new growth by cutting back older branches.

To do this, take your secateurs and climb your ladder, then remove a few branches from different sections as you move around the tree.

In the spirit of putting 'pretty' low down in your priority list, you must avoid the 'haircut' prune.

This is when you cut only the top branches across the entire tree, leading new, fruitless shoots to grow from all the outside branches.

Instead, shorten a branch here and there as you move around the tree, so new branches are interspersed with older growth.

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The apple-sweet spot is somewhere between ten and 20% of the entire canopy.

Taking off less than this might mean the tree isn't ready to grow new branches, and will have more old wood.

Branches of between one and four years old fruit best.

Pruning more 20% can cause the tree to produce lots of watershoots – tall, upright branches that don't bear fruit.

The main issue with watershoots is that they crowd up space for fruiting branches on the tree.

While you don't have to get rid of all watershoots, if you find that last year's trimming produced too many then cut these back.

It's a good idea to make sure you remove watershoots of 23cm or longer.

Apple trees should be pruned every winter, ready for picking ripe fruit between late summer and late autumn.

Make sure the tree has no leaves left before you get in the garden and start trimming.