Owner's comments
Inherited this unkempt overgrown and untended Bramley with the house. First year of my ownership it cropped spectacularly. But the branches were damaging the roof of the house - dislodging slates - so it had to receive the 'kill or cure' chainsaw-treatment!
Last year it threw up some healthily-good new leaders. This year these have put on some decent side-shoots and are now around 12 feet tall.
With luck I'll get some fruit next year.
It does attract ants: what should I do to stop them? There are trails of the things running up the trunk, presumably after aphids somewhere in the upper canopy.
It's also shown some signs of canker - I have been cutting out cankered shoots and treating the wounds with a spray of domestic bleach - is there anything better I should be using?