Cherry pruning - ensuring the yield of the tree
Cherry pruning is a necessary technique that regulates tree growth, yield and is a prevention against diseases. Inexperienced gardeners feel sorry for the young tree, and admire the dense crown. But the branches grow old, get thicker, with mass tops and ramifications. Without light and air, fruitful branches will die off, fungal diseases will appear in the wood, and you will have to forget about berries. Therefore, pruning cherries is a mandatory systematic procedure.
The goals and nature of pruning at different periods of the tree's life
There are certain patterns in the formation of cherries by pruning that you need to know. The seedlings of the first year are not cut in the fall, so that the fragile tree does not weaken before winter. In the spring, during the first five years, forming a crown, the branches should be cut to 50 cm, the rest, up to 30. Between the skeletal branches should be more than 30 cm, the trunk between them should not overgrow.
If it was a harsh winter, spring pruning should be done when foliage appears, when frost holes become clearly visible. Any pruning is carried out in warm weather at positive temperatures.
Cherry pruning:
- create the correct formation of the crown;
- provide an increase in fruit, which means yield;
- remove old, disease-infected wood.
However, you can't just walk around the garden and cut twigs. Pruning is a surgical operation, it is carried out at a certain time, and the purpose of each type of removal of excess branches is different. When trimming it is important that the tool is clean and sharpened.
The figure shows a diagram of the formative pruning of sweet cherries in spring. From the second year after rooting, a fruit tree is formed from the seedling for 3 years. This is called shaping. Held in the spring.
During fruiting, sanitary pruning is used when broken and damaged branches are removed. After the fruits have filled up to 1 cm, thinning is carried out - remove excess ovaries, thin out the crown. The remaining crop will not break off the branches, it will ripen faster, the berries will be larger. Thinning, remove or form into fruiting all fattening branches.
Pruning old cherries takes place in stages. Aged branches, on which small growth is removed, is a rejuvenating pruning. Instead, fruitful formations will grow. The tree will receive a second youth. All operations are carried out at a specific time. Only anti-aging pruning is partially carried out even in warm winter in February.
Each type of pruning is done in a favorable period.
Spring crown formation
All types of spring work with wood begin when the air temperature rises above +5 degrees, and frosts are not expected at night. In the spring, they form a crown, leaving up to 9 branches in the lower tier. The second tier is assigned 2-3 shoot-forming branches.
To reduce growth upward pruning cherries are held annually. The guide is pruned and transferred to a lateral bud annually so that the tree does not grow up. In this case, the grown shoot is folded down, and again the next year is cut off to the outer bud.They are removed or transferred to fruiting branches by the formation of tops, too sagging branches are pulled up. A new growth from the root is cut to the ground.
The scheme for pruning cherries in spring is aimed at rejuvenating the ends of the branches. Depending on the growth rate of the shoots, they are pruned to a certain length:
- Weak pruning is determined by a quarter of the length of the branch, it awakens the buds at the top, branches are formed for the harvest.
- Medium pruning - half the length stimulates the branches to grow outward with fruiting this year.
- Heavy pruning leaves a few buds to form a new branch.
How to prune cherries, the gardener focuses on the condition of the tree, the strength of growth and age.
Summer care of the cherry crown
In the summer, two pruning is carried out. In summer, as soon as the ovaries are visible and the leaves have blossomed, the cherries are thinned out. At this moment, twigs with dead wood are clearly visible - leaves do not bloom on them. The excess ovary is removed. Cherry pruning in summer is to remove all branches that have begun to dry out from fungal diseases. To remove young twigs growing inside the crown or future tops, use pinching. By pinching the tips of the shoots, you can direct them in the right direction. Remove a green, non-lignified twig in summer - do not weaken the tree by pruning when the unnecessary branch becomes thick. This is the answer to the question of many novice gardeners - is it possible to prune cherries in the summer.
After harvesting, cherries need sanitary pruning. It consists in removing broken twigs, cutting out unnoticed tops. Experienced gardeners often use not cutting the top, but pulling it in the right direction with ropes. Only horizontal branches produce a crop.
The cherry has a strong renewal. Instead of one cut, several branches grow. Based on this, it is better to remove one old branch than a lot of useless, aimed at thickening the young growth.
Pruning work in the fall
Pruning after leaf fall is considered autumn. How to prune cherries in autumn depends on the growth. Weak branches and branches growing in the wrong direction are cut off.
If you need to cut a thick branch, then you need to do it with a saw, not a pruner. Gardeners noticed that autumn cuts with a saw heal faster.
In the fall, annual shoots are shortened by a third. You need to complete the work as quickly as possible so that the tree gains strength for the winter.
When trimming the crown of a cherry tree at any time, you need to know that an open wound is the site of the introduction of diseases. After the cut has dried, it must be closed with a garden pitch.
good day. I am a completely inexperienced gardener and I have a question, probably for "dummies": they planted a sweet cherry, now it is three years old. only recently they learned that it can be formed (according to the “tradition” of the parents, cherries are not cut off). today we have a two-meter tree with two tiers. skeletal branches are very long and give rich branches only towards the ends.
tell me how to cut it right now (especially branches). Or such a tree can no longer be formed normally and only sanitary pruning should be carried out?
Look at your tree.