How to prune cherries for good fruiting
Cherry refers to stone fruit trees. Its saplings, as well as peach, apricot and plum saplings, are grown on rootstock. Many gardeners think that, unlike other stone fruit trees, cherries cannot be shaped. Cherry crown is not cut off, and it overgrows more and more every year.
The branches of a 15-year-old tree reach a size of 60-70 cm. By this age, they begin to shed deciduous buds, tend to the ground. On drooping branches, practically no new fruit and vegetative buds are formed. If such a branch is shortened too much, cutting off all fruit buds, then new cherries will no longer be laid. Only after two seasons will new shoots appear, and the branch will begin to grow again. It is because of this that gardeners believe that pruning cherries is not worth it, but this opinion is erroneous.
Cherry matured age, pruning time
Cherries, like other fruit trees, are worth pruning. But pruning should be done only after the cherry reaches 6 years of age. If you start the formation of the crown earlier, then the immature tree will develop more slowly and give small yields. In addition, wounds of young cherries take longer to heal. Because of this, in the winter, after the autumn pruning, the tree may freeze out.
Correct pruning
From the age of 6, it is necessary to form a cherry crown every season. First of all, frozen, dried and diseased branches are removed. General pruning rules such as in other fruit trees, but the branches directed inside the crown are not always cut off, since the largest number of flower buds is laid on young shoots. This is a feature of cherry trees. On a young shoot of a tree 5-7 cm long, up to 8 fruit buds can form. Even if such a shoot is directed inside the crown, it will spend all the nutrients on the development of fruits, it will not have energy for growth, and it will not thicken the crown. The central shoot of a 7-8-year-old tree is pruned to suppress cherry growth and transfer it to lateral branching.
When the cherry reaches 15 years old, only cosmetic pruning is carried out, shortening the branches of the tree.
The drooping shoots must be completely removed or cut into 3 buds, so you stimulate the formation of flower buds the next year.