Hi. This apple tree was new when I moved here 9yrs ago. But I had no idea I had to prune it😖. I read through other questions and it seems I need to first move the tree obviously. Then find a central leader branch, and remove any water sprouts etc. I have already cut crossing branches also . The pic shows that there are 3 main branches! How much more can be trimmed without killing it? So Im stumped. Hahaha. Thank you.

I doubt you can successfully move a 9-year old tree.

Fruit trees are unique in shape - the central leader is cut out and the tree pruned to be vase-shaped. Apples are unique in their pruning because the fruiting spurs last for 15 years or more. The idea is to prune to preserve old spurs and encourage new.

How tall far up the trunk does your tree branch? If those are fruiting spurs at the top, how much do you like ladders? I would cut at the red lines:



Then in future years, develop tiers of fruiting branches from those 3 stems, the twiggier the better.

I agree with @Lucy68, moving it isn't a good idea. You'll probably kill it if you try. And I think you have to choose between the apple tree and the evergreen next to it. One of them has to go or neither will be happy.

Are you interested in the fruit? A lot of apple tree pruning techniques are about maximizing fruit production. If you don't want a lot of fruit you should just prune it for shape and to control its messy nature.

If you want fruit try to re-establish the central leader (google it) and control the height. I would prune like this:


(on the right side of the picture try to save the branch that is at a 45 degree angle to the main branch.

But don't prune it all in one year. A basic rule is to not prune more than 1/3 of a fruit tree in any year. With that in mind you could probably prune one more larger side branch this year and then stop. Prune again next year including topping.

Here's more info on pruning apple trees:
https://pubs.nmsu.edu/_h/H327/....

Good luck!

Thank you! I guess I'll have to plant new trees for apples. The trimming advice was very helpful. I kept looking at pictures online that didn't look anything like this poor tree, so I couldn't figure it out.
Much appreciated.