Good topic for Garden Web Fruit & Orchards Forum.

pruning goals are often dictated by what you want to accomplish .. and when you can state such.. you can figure out what to do ...

e.g. .. is this a shade tree in the yard.. with the benefit of some apples ... ugly as they may be ....

or is this going to be a production tree searching for perfect state fair fruit ....

the former involves not much pruning.. the latter sever pruning to grow perfect fruit for show.. and includes a 4 or 5 sprays per season regimen ...

every leaf is a converting sunshine into energy .... leaving them for 1 to 3 years benefits growing a mature root mass.. so i wouldnt be doing much pruning on this tree .. maybe next year ...

i might install a 3 foot mulch ring around the tree to keep the nut with or on the lawnmower away from it.. as well as the weedwhip

ken

they dont look like backyard trees ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=orchard+pruning+of+apple+trees&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

excuse me apple trees are not ugly

should I leave the apples on the tree or prune them off first year there wasn't any this year I see about 25 Apples

You want to remove any apples this year as well. And if this is intended to be a fruit production tree (as the vast majority of apples are), then you do want to start pruning soon (should actually have started as soon as the tree was planted). Not now, though. Wait until the tree is dormant - late winter - to do the early structural pruning.

Pruning and Training Apples

btw, it is entirely feasible to grow perfectly good apples without a "4 or 5 sprays per season regimen". It depends on the pathological pressures of your area as well as what you are willing to put up with :-)

Yeah it is intended to be a fruit production tree What If I prune now I thought late winter pruning will result in stem die back so early spring or even now is a good time no? I think I just need to prune off a few inches off of the top of the tree it is very tall

Structural pruning - what baby trees like yours require - is done during dormancy. Maintenance pruning (after proper establishment and a good structural framework developed) can be done in summer.

Clipping a few inches off the top is NBD and can be done whenever :-)

For me, I prefer to prune during the growing season, I can get die back from frost events otherwise, The down side could be a higher chance of some disease taking hold.