How to prune cherry trees
Abstract of this article: How to prune cherry trees and experience in managing and pruning cherry trees. The next step is a comprehensive introduction.
The pruning of sweet cherries includes two methods: winter pruning and summer pruning. Winter pruning is carried out between after falling leaves and before germination, but it can easily cause shrinkage, glue flow, and even the death of large cherry branches.
Summer pruning Because sweet cherry trees are not prone to glue in summer, sweet cherries are mainly pruned in summer. After properly cutting off large branches, apply white latex or paint to the wound to prevent glue from flowing from the pruning area and promote wound healing.
The main pruning methods for sweet cherries in summer include carving buds, pulling branches, picking, twisting tips, and holding tips.
(1) Carving buds is carried out when the tip of the bud is green, and the depth of carving should be heavier than that of the apple, otherwise the branches will not flourish. The method is to cut a knife across the top of the buds or leaf clusters and reach as deep as the xylem. The role of carving buds is to improve the germination quality of lateral buds or leaf clusters and increase the proportion of medium and long fruit branches to promote the growth of branch tips and prevent baldness of trunks. Bud carving is limited to young and prosperous trees, missing parts of main branches, and strong branches; the bud carving site should be 0.5 cm above the bud body, so that the branches that are drawn have a large opening angle, otherwise it will be easy to draw skin branches with small angles. In addition, if buds are carved early, buds are carved deep, and branches are strong; if buds are carved late, buds are carved light, and branches are weak.
Cutting buds (2) Pulling branches is a very important summer cutting job for sweet cherries. Winter pruning cannot solve the ventilation and light transmission conditions of sweet cherry trees at one time, but in summer, pulling branches can solve problems that cannot be solved by winter pruning. Pulling branches is beneficial to improving light, preventing the bearing parts from migrating outwards, weakening the top advantage, easing the branch momentum of the tree, increasing the number of short branches, and promoting the formation of flower buds. Branches should be pulled early. Generally, branches should be pulled to open angles in June, which is conducive to the formation of fruiting branches and early fruit. At this time, the sweet cherry tree body responds relatively gently and is not easy to sprout on its back. When the main branch grows to about 20 cm, the base angle of the new shoot is opened to the horizontal position; when it is 30~40 cm, the branch is pulled to the horizontal or even to about 120°, and different measures such as pinching and twisting are combined, and the main branch is pulled up immediately. This work can continue until September, but at least twice a year.
Pull branch management should pay attention to pull branches, first determine the pull branch position, can not pull branches into a "bow" shape, in addition to pull branch rope application of soft plastic tie rope and often adjust the binding position, so as not to overflow the trunk, causing glue flow dead tree. Pulling should be carried out during the spring after sap flow and before germination, as well as during the sweet cherry growing season.
How to prune cherry trees
Cherry planting (3) Pickling means removing the tip of the new shoot before lignification. Pickling is mainly used to increase the number of branches or shape young trees. By picking, it can control the vigorous growth of new shoots, increase the number of branches and leaves, accelerate the expansion of the crown, promote the transformation of tree vegetative growth to reproductive growth, promote the formation of flower buds, facilitate early fruiting of young trees, and reduce the amount of winter pruning. Pickling can be divided into three methods: mild pickings, moderate pickings and severe pickings.
Pickling management ① Mild pickings are usually carried out 7 to 8 days after flowering. When the new shoots grow to about 15 centimeters, only the new shoots about 5 centimeters at the top can be removed. After picking, except for 1 - 2 middle branches that appear at the top, all buds can form short branches and axillary flower buds. This method is generally applied to the small lateral branches of the main branches of "V"-shaped trees and spindle trees, as well as the pruning of the main branches of cylindrical trees. The main purpose is to control the crown and cultivate small fruiting branches, reduce the development of young fruits and the growth of new shoots to nutrients. competition, improve the fruit setting rate. When the growth of new shoots is 10 - 20 cm, fruiting branches can be formed by continuous light picking.
Summer shearing ② Moderate pinching When the new shoots grow to more than 40 centimeters, pick about 20 centimeters of the new shoots, and 3 to 4 branches can germinate. Moderate picking is mainly used to prune the heads of main branches of improved fusi-shaped trees and small crown sparse layer main branches.
③ When the branch grows to more than 30 centimeters, the branch is left for about 10 centimeters to pick the core to form a fruiting branch. Severe pinching is mainly used when the lateral branches of small canopy sparse layered and modified fusi-shaped main branches are not pinched in time.
Generally moderate and severe pickings are carried out from late May to late July. After being picked up in late July, the new shoots issued are mostly not substantial, are easy to dry, and are prone to freezing damage, so we will no longer pick up in August.