Abstract: The 3-year-old ‘Ascenteke’ apple saplings were used as experimental materials, and different cutting back methods were used to study the effects of different cutting back treatments on the trunk length, trunk diameter, trunk extension branch length and trunk extension branch diameter growth rate, germination rate, branching ability and other traits of apple, in order to find out the most suitable cutting back method, and provide reference for the rapid culture of high spindle tree shape of apple saplings.The results showed that the greater the degree of cutting back, the lower the germination rate and short branch rate of branches, the higher the branching force and medium-long branch rate; for 7-10 mm（not including 10 mm） trunk extension branches, T1 treatment had a significant promoting effect on the growth of trunk length, trunk diameter, trunk extension branch length and diameter, while T2 and T3 treatments had a certain negative effect.After cutting back treatments of 10-13 mm（not including 13 mm） and 13-16 mm（not including 16 mm） trunk extension branches, it was found that T6 and T9 treatments had the strongest promoting effect on the growth rate of trunk length, trunk diameter, trunk extension branch length and diameter, respectively.The ranking results after principal component analysis showed that T1 treatment ranked first when the trunk extension branch diameter was 7-10 mm（excluding 10 mm）,T6 treatment ranked first when the trunk extension branch diameter was 10-13 mm（excluding 13 mm）,and T9 treatment ranked first when the trunk extension branch diameter was 13-16 mm（excluding 16 mm）.In summary, when the diameter of the main extended branch was 7-10 mm（excluding 10 mm）,the 1/4 cutting back treatment had the best effect, and when the diameter of the main extended branch was 10-16 mm（excluding 16 mm）,the 1/2 cutting back treatment had the best effect.