I read the article John, and for those of us who prune every year, a ‘tip bearer’ can be treated about the same as a ‘regular tree.’ I’ve watched commercial growers use pneumatic pruners to remove shoots back to the ‘next limb’ from which they grew; this shortens and thins their trees. But it also leaves some ‘new shoots’ untouched. If the tree is a tip-bearer, they’ll get their fruit (on spindly shoots) - but the height & width would be pushing outward…

With ‘us,’ capable and willing to cut individual shoots back to 4 or 5 buds, and ignore the spindly lateral shoots of a tip-bearer, we do just fine. In fact, often too fine! I prune all my apple trees the same, having forgotten which are tip-bearer’s or not. The key is leaving a few base buds on each new (lateral) shoot, which will inevitably leave some fruit buds. And – leave those spindly dudes!

When showing others how to prune, most folks have a very difficult time leaving anything that doesn’t look perfect, so they’re constantly wanting to follow-up my work by snipping off the small stuff. I try to make it clear that any ‘twig’ growing level will not ‘take over’ the tree. It will likely fruit, bending limp with big beautiful apples. They grin … while keeping a wary eye on it