How to Grow Cherries: Master the Best Time for Pruning
There is a saying that goes like this: cherries are delicious, but the tree is hard to plant. Many people love eating cherries, this kind of fruit, and want to grow them themselves, but they are not very familiar with the growing methods. Actually, to harvest delicious and healthy cherries, besides being familiar with the growing methods, proper pruning during the growing process is also very crucial.
How to Grow Cherries
1. Treating the cherry seeds
When we eat cherries, we leave behind the seeds inside. To grow them, we need these seeds. Soak the cherry seeds in warm water for one day, then take them out and rinse them, and use a tool to crack open the shell. People with strong teeth can bite them open directly, but be careful not to damage the seed kernel inside.
2. Drying and sowing
Place the treated cherry seeds in a cool, shady spot for 1-2 days, then they are ready for sowing. Prepare a container filled with soil in advance, sow the cherry seeds shallowly in the soil, then cover with about 1-2cm of soil. After sowing, water thoroughly once. After sowing, keep the temperature between 20-25 degrees, and they will sprout in about half a month.
3. Seedling stage management
After the seedlings emerge, we can water according to how dry or moist the soil is, keeping the soil moist but not too wet. Once the seedlings have grown into shape, we can transplant them into a large pot. When transplanting, move them together with the soil, and be careful not to damage the seedling roots. After transplanting, apply organic fertilizer appropriately, so the seedlings can grow better.
When Is the Best Time to Prune a Cherry Tree
Cherry trees need spring pruning, summer pruning, and winter pruning, three times in total, which is better. The details are as follows:
1. Summer pruning
1. Removing sprouts and wiping out buds: During the leaf cluster stage (3-5cm), completely remove the vigorous shoots on the upper parts of the main and side branches, on the trunk, and near large pruning cuts, as well as the competing buds at the cut ends of extension shoots. Remove double buds and keep single buds; remove dry stubs, diseased and pest-infested branches, useless buds, and shorten long fruit branches that have not set fruit.
2. Thinning branches: Overly dense branches on the main and side branches and fruit-bearing branch groups can be thinned out from the base. Note that too many branches should not be thinned at one time; control the amount of thinning to 1/3 of the number of new shoots at the thinned site. For ultra-short cutting back: Before June, for vigorous water shoots with space on the main and side scaffold branches, keep 1-2 nodes at the base for ultra-short cutting back, which can cultivate small and medium-sized fruit-bearing branch groups.
2. Autumn pruning
After September, new shoots no longer extend, and growth is basically in a semi-stopped state. Cutting off the tender green tips of the current year's shoots can save nutrients and promote the fuller development of the branches themselves as well as flower buds and leaf buds; for water shoots, cut back by 1/3, and appropriately thin out overly dense branches on the outer periphery that block light.
3. Winter pruning
Cut off less than 1/5 of the total length of one-year-old branches. The new shoots that sprout the following year will have weaker growth vigor, but will produce more new shoots, and are mostly used for cultivating medium, short, and bouquet-like fruit branches. Or, after lightly short-cutting strong fruit branches, increase the number of fruits and control the growth of new shoots. Thinning out useless branches that are thin and weak, diseased or pest-infested, water shoots, overlapping, and densely crowded and light-blocking can promote the vigor of the remaining branches. For overly vigorous water-shoot-type fruit branches or long fruit branches, leaving them unpruned can weaken apical dominance and promote the formation of medium and short fruit branches.
How to Propagate Cherry Saplings by Cuttings
During the spring and summer growing season, select semi-mature, robust branches, 0.7-30cm in diameter, each segment 15-500cm long, with 4-6 leaves attached. Insert them into river sand, vermiculite, peat soil, or a mixture of several of these, all suitable as a seedbed medium. The cuttings especially need to stay moist and be shaded. After cuttings are inserted, roots develop in about 1.5-2 months. Wait until the root mass grows vigorously before transplanting. If the cutting method is managed properly, there will be a 60-90% survival rate. The cutting method is simple and has the highest success rate.
When Do Domestic Cherries Ripen
The ripening period of domestic cherries is about between May and July each year, and late May to around June 20 should be when they taste the best. Because the producing areas differ and the temperature conditions in each place differ, the ripening time will vary slightly. Early cherries generally go on the market in May of the Gregorian calendar, lasting a little more than a month, while late cherries go on the market around mid-to-late May.
That is all for the introduction of cherry growing methods. Did everyone understand? Cherry growing methods are not difficult, because they have relatively strong adaptability to the environment. But managing them during the growing process is very crucial.