Hello, first time poster long time lurker.
I inherited an urban garden a few years ago. These two apple trees seem to have been badly neglected. They used to put on little apples, then drop them. Some of the leaves seemed to wither. Two winters ago I pruned them both heavily. There seemed to be no good branches to keep, as they all go straight up, but I was hesitant to crop more than 1/3rd. Next spring it put on bigger fruit, and I was hopeful, but they ended up dropping them all again.
I've perused some of the advice here on pruning apple trees, but I'm having a hard time applying it to my situation. I don't know much about fruit trees. I'm thinking I should cut the height back on the bigger tree and select a few branches to train, cropping all the other tall competing branches.
I'd appreciate a little bit of guidance. Thank you.
