Thanks, Holly. That was what I guessed, reading between the lines, but I thought I’d check. Appreciate the info!
My Bramley’s graft is just in its first year, but it’s been very vigorous for me as well. I currently have it set up to be informally fan-trained with Bramley’s on one side of the fan and Blenheim Orange (also very vigorous and with a reported tip-bearing tendency) on the other, but I’ve been thinking through whether I want to revise that plan.
FWIW, I’ve found it useful to score the bark clear to the wood, all the way around the limb, to encourage the branch to fruit. Works sometimes, and I’m still experimenting. I think that sometimes people will cut a strip of bark out, invert and replace it. Sounds elegant, but I haven’t tried it!
Good luck, and thanks for your updates.
Does your score mark make a complete circle around and join back to itself? Last spring I tried scoring the trunk, but they were two half circles separated vertically by about 30mm.
If you score 100% around, it sort of girdles the cambium, but I guess if it regrows quickly it will have the effect of stress but not death that is reported to help induce fruiting.
I first found this to work by inadvertently leaving a string tied around the branch too long. So it “circumnavigated” the branch pretty perfectly. But it was a very thin line, and therein lies the rub. I don’t know enough about the details - as of now, you know just about as much about it as I do! But I definitely think it’s work experimenting with and investigating further. So again, FWIW.