North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

 Ginda noted "dormant-season pruning, in and of itself, tends to foster a
continual cycle of watersprout-type growth, in my limited experience."

The way I look at it is, the tree wants to do one thing- which is create
such a dense canopy that almost no sun reaches the ground, probably to
discourage competition.  Such a dense canopy cannot be efficient, as any
leaves receiving less than 30% exposure are said to deprive the tree of more
energy than they  harvest.

You want to do another- open up the tree enough to assure good light
exposure throughout the tree, creating high quality fruit throughout.  It is
a dance you only get to lead when you are actively pruning- water sprouts
will follow come spring, no matter when you prune- winter or summer.  The
cycle is inevitable when growing apples on vigorous root stocks.