Interesting..... I need to do this! It's too bad I tossed everything so far. Oh well. If we don't find many more, I know what to do next year.
I have so many questions about caring for these apple trees. We have 4 in the yard that are quite large, and the gypsy moth caterpillars are all over them. The smallest tree is probably 15+ feet tall, and the biggest has to be over 20 feet. Every time I learn something new about them, it really just brings up more questions!
I do not know too much about fruit trees. But, my spouse knows a bit more- grew up in E WA, where many apples are produced. His dad loves apples so much, he grows over 100 apple trees (probably over 80 varieties) for his own personal enjoyment (fresh, dried, and regular pressed cider). So he spent teen years working as an apple thinner at local orchards and helping his dad. Apple trees need to be sprayed several times -with what and when, I am not sure, but the apples required the most attention of all his fruit trees. Apples are thinned anytime after flowering to partway into the growth season in part to produce larger apples and to reduce weight on branches. Generally, they are thinned to the center flower/fruit per flower cluster. Your tree may be self pruning fruit to some extent bc it can’t support that much fruit. In the fall/winter you can thin the branches and shorten the tree a bit - removing some of the taller branches. However, there is a logic to pruning, and how much (%) of limbs to leave on the tree, so you will need to do a little research . And, the other part is LIGHT- most commercial operations maximize light, and there are a few methods to do this in an orchard. In the backyard, you try to open up the canopy to allow the most light to reach as much of the tree as possible. Pruning is part of that. Separation of limbs (pushing two limbs farther apart, for example) is another aspect.