Apple tree pruning advice needed

[Wellwellwellwhatsallthisthen]

I have an old apple tree in my garden (UK), see pic. It's never really borne fruit (have lived here 8 years). We've had it pruned a few times over the years, but these sticks (water shoots?) grow like this every year.

I just contacted a tree surgeon who said it should be pruned in autumn. Google tells me it should be in winter.

If anyone has an apple tree, how often do you prune it? Does it need to be every year? And do these sticks always appear or are they a sign of an unhealthy tree?

I'm not too bothered about it bearing fruit, I just don't want to damage the tree by doing the wrong thing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated 😊

You could try pruning in summer as is done with trained trees to limit their growth.

How much are you cutting back by each year?

Is it being fed?

I prune mine each end of October as my DGM told me that’s when it’s best to do. She had a cooker and an eater in her garden for decades and they always had loads of apples. The fruit issue might be because of it either being a spur or tip fruit grower
We no longer recommend routine rigorous shortening of all young growth on spur-bearing trees. However, understanding the fruiting habit of your tree can help you prune more effectively to ensure a good crop

https://www.rhs.org.uk/fruit/apples/winter-pruning

Those are “water shoots”, the result of too hard pruning the year before.

That tree has been pollarded, ie cut back to the same point every year. That’s not the usual pruning regime for an apple. If it were mine, I’d get a really good arboriculturalist to renovate it over several years. The aim would be to get rid of the crossing boughs so-all the boughs are spreading outwards, then one by one try and get rid of the “knobs” on the main limbs.

The RHS is good on apple pruning.