CorrectCherry pruninghas a huge impact on maintaining he althy tree growth and abundant yield. Uncut cherries with overly compacted crowns run wild, yield less and are easily affected by diseases. See when to prune cherries, what is the difference between cutting cherries and cutting cherries, how to performcutting cherries after plantingand how to performcutting old cherriesthat on your plot it had been a bit neglected before.
Cutting cherry helps to keep the tree in good condition and improve fruiting
Cherries are naturally quite vigorous trees (lower growth is achieved thanks to dwarfing rootstocks), producing long and stiff shoots. Their crowns are by nature not very dense and do not require as much cutting as cherries. It is also worth knowing that, unlike cherries, which bear the best fruit on annual shoots, sweet cherries bear the most abundant yields on 2 and 3-year-old shoots.Cherry pruningwill therefore focus on maintaining as many of these branches as possible.
The basicterm for cutting cherries , just like cherries, is summer, after the fruit harvest is finished. Usually it is the end of July or the first half of August. During this period, cutting wounds heal the fastest and the tree is less prone to wood and bark diseases, such as, for example, bacterial cancer of fruit trees. Nevertheless, remember to protect the cut places immediately after pruning with garden ointment or white emulsion with the addition of Miedzian 50 WP.
Note!We cut cherries on dry and sunny days. Avoid pruning when the weather is rainy, as it is very easy to infect the tree with fungal diseases.
Cutting cherries after plantingis a very important procedure, because at this point we decide how to manage the tree crown. And there are two ways to do it.
The first way tocut cherries after plantingis to form a spindle crown with a clearly strong conductor and much thinner and slender twigs growing out of it. So it looks similar to the case of dwarf apple trees. Unfortunately, in the case of sweet cherries it is quite laborious, because cherries form many side shoots strongly growing upwards, which will compete with the guide and these shoots need to be regularly controlled, and the emerging side shoots should be bent so that they do not form acute angles with the guide (they should grow up if possible) horizontally to the side).Although it is laborious, this way we will obtain a slender tree crown that takes up little space.
"It is also worth considering another way tocut the cherry after planting , whose task is to create the so-called Spanish bush. For this purpose, the tree is slightly branched and after planting, it is trimmed to a height of 80-100 cm. In the case of already branched trees, the shoots growing less than 50 cm above the ground are cut, and the higher ones are left, shortening them by 1/3 of their length. The guide, on the other hand, is cut in half. "
This will allow the plant to develop several strong shoots. In the following yearsof cherry crown formationthese shoots are left, while the conductor is cut out. Then a crown is created consisting of several strong branches. After 3-4 years, systematic limb shortening should begin, thanks to which many new growths will grow. Some of them are left for 2-3 years to bear fruit.
In the case of older trees with a properly shaped crown,cherry cuttinginvolves removing branches that grow too close to the ground, and examining the inside of the crown (cut twigs crossing each other and growing inside crown), cutting the top so that the cherry does not grow too high.Very old cherries can grow up to 10 m high and then the fruit from the top of the tree is virtually completely inaccessible to us. It is also difficult to perform maintenance procedures with such a large tree. During one cut, we can lower such a tree by as much as 2-4 meters. When you want to remove the old side branch of a cherry, you should leave a 30-50 cm section of the cut branch for the so-called plug. In this way, the so-called a saddle from which new, fruiting shoots can grow. "
If you are unsure how to make a cut or are just afraid to do it, the fantastic book "Cutting School 2" ontrimming fruit trees and shrubs
This is the second part of the best-selling book "Cutting School", in which the authors Lucyna and Alicja Grabowskieexplained in a simple and clear way the secrets of cuttingornamental plants. The first book The School of Cutting for its simple language and clear, accurate drawings was loved by garden owners all over Poland. The book quickly became a bestseller- 20,000 copies sold! "
"Cutting School 2" will make youconfident in pruning fruit trees and shrubsand learn to cut plants so that they grow according to your expectations and bear fruit abundantly. After reading this book, your approach to pruning plants will probably change completely!