How to prune cherry tree saplings? A detailed guide to the correct method

From seedling to mature tree to fruiting, a cherry tree requires a great deal of work, from establishing the orchard in the early stages to management in the later stages, all of which is crucial. If any step is not done properly, it will directly affect the growth of the cherry tree and lead to reduced yields later on. Doing a good job of pruning cherry saplings is also a very important step.

Pruning methods for cherry saplings

1. Young trees have many vegetative branches; their terminal leaf buds extend and grow, expanding the canopy, while the lower axillary buds produce fruiting branches. After entering the fruiting stage, most one-year-old branches have a terminal leaf bud, while the axillary buds are mostly flower buds, which are called fruiting branches. Fruiting branches are classified by length into long fruiting branches 15-20 cm, medium fruiting branches 5-15 cm, short fruiting branches about 5 cm, and flower-cluster fruiting branches 1-2 cm. In terms of fruiting ability, long fruiting branches have relatively poor fruit set, generally around 40%. The fruiting ability of medium fruiting branches varies by variety. Short fruiting branches have a high fruit set rate, and the fruit quality is also good. Flower-cluster fruiting branches are the main fruiting branches on vigorous trees during the full fruiting stage, with a fruit set rate of about 80%. The fruit quality is the best, and they are long-lived, bearing fruit continuously for 10-20 years. Fruiting branches and flower-cluster fruiting branches are the basis for yield formation. Chinese cherry and sour cherry have a high proportion of long and medium fruiting branches in the early fruiting stage, while in the full fruiting stage short fruiting branches and flower-cluster fruiting branches predominate.

2. Pruning of young trees: To encourage young trees to fruit early, on the basis of shaping, the pruning of all types of branches should be light, with pinching during the growing season as the main method. This controls excessive shoot growth, increases branching, and speeds up canopy expansion. Winter pruning should be postponed until before bud break to avoid the cut drying out from water loss. Apart from heading back the main branches and extension branches and appropriately thinning out some overly dense and crossing branches, medium and small branches should be retained as much as possible.

Pruning precautions

1. The cut on a pruned branch should be smooth, at a 45-degree angle to the bud at the cut, cutting from the opposite side of the bud, with the upper side of the slope level with the tip of the bud at the cut, and the lowest part of the slope level with the base of the bud. This way the cut wound is small, heals easily, and the bud grows quickly after sprouting. For thinning cuts, cut at the branching point, level with the trunk and leaving no stub.

2. When pruning larger branches and trunks, the sectional work method can be used. First, 20 cm above the required saw cut, saw a cut from below the branch upward, to a depth of half the thickness of the branch, then saw the branch off from above, leaving a stub, and then saw off the stub from the saw cut, which can prevent the branch from splitting.

3. When sawing off tree branches and trunks, to prevent rot from rain or pathogen invasion, the saw cut must be flat, disinfected with a 20% copper sulfate solution, and finally coated with a protective agent to prevent decay and drying and promote healing.

Pruning techniques for fruiting cherry trees

Fruiting trees are often summer-pruned after harvest. Thinning is used to remove overly dense, overly vigorous perennial large branches that disrupt the canopy, adjusting the canopy structure and promoting flower bud formation. When thinning out large branches, take care that the wound is small and flat to promote rapid healing. When thinning out one-year-old branches, you can first cut above the axillary flower buds at the base, and after they have fruited and become bare, thin them out. During winter pruning, attention should be paid to appropriately renewing the 2-3 year old sections at the tips of scaffold branches and on short fruiting branches, to stimulate vegetative growth and the continuous formation of new fruiting branches, and to prevent the fruiting zone from moving outward and the interior of the canopy from becoming bare.

Pruning techniques for aging cherry trees

The main task in pruning aging trees is timely renewal and rejuvenation, using vigorous water sprouts to form a new canopy. For scaffold branches that have first weakened and lost the ability to bear fruit, renew them in time. When using latent buds for renewal by cutting back, the latent buds of Chinese cherry live about 5-10 years. In order to renew with branches when cutting back, it is best to have relatively normal small branches at the cutback point, as this causes less damage to the tree. For the water sprouts that emerge after renewal pruning, select branches with suitable direction, position, and vigor that grow outward to develop into new main branches and side branches. Excess ones should be thinned out, and the rest headed back to promote branching, then left unpruned to form fruiting branch groups. When renewing large branches, this should also be done after harvest to avoid causing gummosis at the wound.

There are many pruning methods for cherry trees, and the methods differ for different stages. Generally, when pruning we use the angled downward cut method, so that the wound surface is small and healing is faster. To prevent infection, we can apply a little medicine after pruning, which is best. Only by doing this work well will the cherry tree have a higher fruiting rate later on.