Anyone know what’s a reasonable quote for pruning 3 apple trees about 18 feet tall?

We just bought one of those long reach fiskars pruners – you’ll get up to 18 feet no probs. Anything thicker I just take out with a bow saw as you can generally climb apple trees very easily.

Where are you based?

I would guess you could be looking at an hours work per tree then getting rid of prunings. Could be looking at £200+

Prunes are plums, not apples, silly.

£200+ ………. £80/hr?

Wow.

Wow.

+ Travel to site, vehicle, saws, insurance, training, phone etc.

How did you get £80 per hour? Even if it did only take 3 hours that’s £65 and hour before paying to get rid of and the time to drive to the green waste site. Height of the tree really isn’t an indicator of how long it would take. A fairly young tree might have only take an hour if it was previously well looked after but a really old tree that hadn’t been touched in years could take ages. Pruning apple trees can be very fiddly and you do need to know what your doing if you want decent fruit and a good shape for the future.

Any pictures of the trees?

I’m in Cornwall and have a tree that needs pruning. Anyone want to do it?

myti is bang on, fruit trees really vary depending on how they have been looked after but as a rough guide I would charge between £150-200 for a job like that.

I’d remove any branches that cross each other, shorten any that look like they could break with fruit weight, top out the vertical “water shoots”, open up the middle to let the light in and then see how they look. I’m halfway through doing mine this year. Takes anywhere from one hour to half a day per tree as a rough guide.

Just had 10 conifers about 12 feet tall cut down and taken away
Laurel hedges pruned
12 largeshrubs cut down and removed
All the roots stump ground out
£400
Live in the north west

I was assuming VAT on top at that hourly rate myti.

I use a great guy who used to work for the Duke of Westminster but has now started his own business.
I pay about £150/day and that includes fuel and him using his own tractor for the hedge cutting.
He doesn’t need to take anything away though.

sharkbait

Member
£200+ ………. £80/hr?

Wow.

take you never engaged the services of a solicitor currently being charged £320 +vat phr for an inept incompetent service.

not a penny of his bill has been paid yet.

Pruning apple trees is a bit different to butchering a hedge or cutting down some conifers.

So I was quoted £280 for 3 trees, conifer hedge trim (about 90ft long & 8ft high) and about 4-6 shrubs. All waste removed. Initially he wanted £380 but I couldn’t accept that. 2 guys here doing it now. I live in the middle of nowhere so its a pain getting jobs done. A tad more expensive than I’d like but if he does a good job then I’ll be pleased. Last time a guy in the village just sliced the tress in half for 60 quid, which was crap.

Just watching the Wassailing on tv and I noticed they prune cider apple trees with twelve bore shotguns.

He’s also pruned five of our apple trees stevenmenmuir…. A day’s work, same price.