The ancient Samhuinn fire festival on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill has marked the beginning of winter, so we can now start pruning our apple trees.

You can prune apple and pear trees at any point in winter as they’re dormant, but an early start has several advantages. Though outwardly dormant, their roots are still active, so trees recover more easily. And when stripped of leaves, you’ll quickly see a tree’s overall shape and how to mould it the way you’d like. During milder weather, pruned branches and stems won’t suffer frost damage.

Fruit trees are pruned according to age and whether they’re free-standing or trained. I’ll look today at the more usual free-standing trees suitable for small and medium-sized gardens.

As ever, start by knowing or finding out an apple’s variety. Tree vigour is determined by its rootstock, ie the roots your particular variety has been grafted on. You can over as well as under prune a tree that’s designed to reach a certain height. The more severely you prune a large one, the more vigorously it will grow.

Heights vary from the dwarfing rootstock M27, which grows to less than 2m, to M106 which reaches a good 5m. Dwarfing M27 and M9 best suit small gardens and M26, reaching 3m, is possible in a slightly larger area.

You must also know where on a branch the apples grow. Most varieties produce fruiting spurs along a 2 year or older branch. But a very few fruit on the tip of the previous year’s growth, while the apples on several several, such as Worcester Pearmain and Bramley, are semi tip-bearing, fruiting on both traditional spurs, but also at the tips.

With tip bearers, thin out some older stems, right back to a main branch, leaving the rest to fruit. With semi tip-bearers, you will get some harvest from fruiting spurs, but will end up with a smaller crop if you remove or cut back tip-bearing stems.

If you’ve just moved house and don’t know what trees you have, don’t prune this year. Watch how strongly they grow next year and where fruits form: you’ll then know how to set about it next year.

When aiming for a healthy, productive tree, prune to allow good air circulation and light to reach as much of the fruit as possible. You achieve this by allowing the trunk to be no taller than 1m, with 4 or 5 main branches arranged in the form of a goblet, thereby allowing a more open centre.

I restrict the height to a maximum of 2-2.5m to let me collect the crop from the ground rather than a shuggly ladder. With taller, less controllable mature specimens like my Victoria plum, I can easily reach higher fruit by scaling branches from the open centre.

Start by removing all dead branches, and any damaged during stormy weather. Remove and destroy any cankerous branches and then clean your tools with hot soap and water before continuing.

Keep the centre open by removing inward-growing branches and prune out any that are aiming for the Heavens. To allow for good air circulation and light, cut out crossing stems, removing the older less productive stems. Thin out a congested clutch of fruiting spurs, leaving healthier new ones. Reduce or remove downward facing and low-growing stems.

And finally, stand back and check the overall shape of the tree and satisfy yourself it’s elegant enough to admire throughout the winter.

Overall appearance also applies to crab apples. Although branches can be removed to prevent a congested, tangly mess, they need little pruning. Restrict pruning to snipping off any low or straggly branches.

Plant of the week

Rosemary ‘Miss Jessopp’s Upright’. This evergreen still looks good and can be used all winter long. Needs a sheltered spot.