If you’re within the Austin megapolis, PM me in January. That’s fruit tree pruning season. I have pruned a lot of trees, fruit ones and others.
If you’re not in ATX, please just be aware that fruit trees should be pruned prior to budswell, mid- to end of winter (when not pruning off the obvious stuff like dead, diseased or broken branches–that’s an ASAP pruning issue, maybe even with wound sealant if you live in an area with bad bugs).
In the meantime, try getting all the windfalls and culls and other spoiled apples away from the tree as soon as is feasible, because nothing draws those bad wormy maggotty bugs faster than fruit on the ground. If you like hard cider, you can put minimally rinsed (you really really want those wild yeasts on the skins!)
and trimmed apples into a bucket, smash them up a bit with a baseball bat or kraut stomper or big rock, mix with a bit sugar and I guarantee you will definitely have hard cider in no time at all. Put a screen or a towel over the bucket to keep the fruit flies out of your cider mash.
When the fermentation show is over and you like the taste of the results, strain off all the solids and put those on your compost pile, which has been prepped a big layer of dead dry leaves on it. Cover with a lot more dead dry leaves and walk away. Later: soil! Put that under the canopy of the apple tree. Lather, rinse, repeat…
