Apple tree maintenance

Hi, I have a few questions regarding the upkeep of apple trees. Perhaps I can keep them all within this one thread?

1. We have a couple of quite mature apple trees - both produced loads of lovely apples this year so I'm quite keen to keep them healthy as long as possible, one however seems to have a hollow trunk at its base. This means apples occasionally full into this hole and decompose. Is this something to worry about? Should I cover the hole up?

2. I've heard about caterpillar bands. Does this do anything other than keep bugs away from your apples or will it help the tree stay healthy?

3. Our 2 trees are very overgrown now - could somebody perhaps direct me in the way of any easy to follow guides on how to prune back?

Many thanks for your help!
Nick

 

This link may help with regard to pruning Nick.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=90
As far as holes go I've filled a couple of big ones in a very old pear using expanding foam and then overpainting.

 

Hi, thanks for the tip. Ive seen that page on the RHS myself actually but wondered if the same advice applied, as our trees are very old and have lots more growth and thicker branches than the one shown in their example. I fear that cutting back too much of the tree would harm it. Ive attached a few pictures to illustrate...

 

Hi Nick, Glue bands just trap insects..ants, earwigs and codling moth caterpillars.
A good way to start pruning is just to cut out any obviously dead or diseased twigs or branches. Then cut out or shorten any crossing, congested twigs and branches. That'll let light and air into the crown of the trees. You could give them a boost with fertiliser in early Spring, but as that will encourage a fair bit of new growth, you'd need to keep an eye on it and select the new shoots you want to keep, then snip out the unwanted ones. On balance, best to prune and just see how they go next year.

 

ok, I guess ill just prune back to what seems a sensible amount. To be honest, the branches are practically touching the ground when the apples were on, so anything would be beneficial I guess. It's hard to tell exactly what is new growth as there is so much lichen on the branches and they all kind of look the same.
thanks

 

Not trying to complicate matters, but some varieties of apple tree are tip-bearers. That means that the tree produces fruit mostly on the ends of the twigs. So if you do a 'pudding-basin' haircut on the tree you'll be cutting off the productive bits! Have a good look at the twigs...are there knobbly growths with multiple buds all along them or are there slim buds with just one or two fatter buds at the tip? Either way, it's better to cut out selected (i.e. dead, diseased and badly crossing) twigs and branches flush with a bigger branch, rather than cutting lots of branches halfway back.
I doubt that there is much new growth on the trees if they've not been pruned for years. Wherever you cut them, though, new growth will sprout from that point.