If you want to keep your apple, pear and plum trees producing good amounts of fruit and not putting their energy into new growth and leaves then a judicious prune will make all the difference. Often apple trees are allowed to grow upwards which will result in all the fruit beyond reach which either means you need to invest in a ladder or wait for windfalls but that option is a bit hit and miss as there's often a reason for them falling and hitting the ground at speed doesn't do the apple any good...ask Newton! You also don't want an over crowded tree with branches crossing and too much growth in the centre which prevents a good flow of air which prevents rotting and allows light into the tree.
What you are aiming to do is to encourage the tree to produce fruit so don't over prune or you can stimulate the tree to put out water shoots, this is long thin growth devoid of fruit. You should look to manage the amount of fruit on each fruiting branch, too much fruit together is likely to rot so counter productive. With plum trees you can end up snapping a branch with too much fruit (has happened to me on more than one occasion)
If you have a tree that hasn't been pruned for sometime you can get away with a hard prune but try not to take more than 25% off in anyone time. This can be needed if you have crossing branches or you want to reduce the height. You will inevitably have water shoots which will need to be cut back next winter.
Make sure you have the right equipment. I use an extendable pruning saw and pruning sheers. This is more time consuming than using a ladder but means you're on the ground and able to move around. You will need a good pair of loppers and secateurs. The better the equipment the easier the task. Knowing the difference between leaf buds and flower buds is good to know but you will quickly see what is fruiting wood and what is not - smooth- straight or vertical shoots are vigorous and show fine leaf buds, not the rounder fruit buds. I remove a third of new growth where I want to encourage future fruiting
Stand back and admire your work and see if you have managed the tree so that it grows how you want it. If you do go mad I wouldn't worry too much as they are pretty hardy and do like a prune.
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