How to Prune Cherry Trees: The Latest Technical Method Tutorial

In principle, cherry pruning is mainly carried out during the growing season, but due to the constraints of actual production conditions, sometimes when growing-season pruning work is not done thoroughly enough, it needs to be adjusted through pruning before spring bud break. Pruning before bud break should avoid cutting large branches as much as possible, reducing wounds to prevent gummosis, and should focus on thinning out overly dense branches and competing branches, with few heading cuts. Let's take a look at cherry tree pruning techniques below!

Cherry Tree Pruning Timing

1. Summer pruning: The purpose of summer pruning is to reduce ineffective growth of new shoots, increase the amount of branches and leaves, improve light conditions, and enable the tree to take shape early, form flower buds early, and bear fruit early. The main pruning methods include opening branch angles, pinching, twisting shoots, bud rubbing, girdling, and scoring.

2. Winter pruning: Winter pruning refers to pruning carried out after the tree enters winter dormancy, and its main methods include heading, leaving branches unpruned, renewal pruning, and branch thinning.

Cherry Tree Pruning Principles

1. Newly planted young trees: For young trees, overly vigorous upright main branches on the central leader and overly vigorous water sprouts on the main branches should be thinned out. For the retained main branches and lateral branches on the main branches, the main focus is on bending branches to open the angle and notching buds. The opening angle of main branches should preferably be 60-70 degrees, and the opening angle of lateral branches should preferably be 70-80 degrees. When bending branches, they should be pulled into a straight line, and by no means into a bow shape. Bud notching is generally carried out in early March before buds sprout, on main branches, for the purpose of promoting lateral branch development.

2. Trees in the initial fruiting stage: For trees in the initial fruiting stage, the tree structure should be adjusted, and attention should be paid to cultivating fruiting branch groups on the main branches. First, gradually thin out main branches that are too low or too dense, so that the main branches do not affect each other. Second, appropriately renew-prune branches that have no branching to promote branching. Third, renew-prune or head back overly weak lateral branches to rejuvenate them, and for overly vigorous ones, open the angle to moderate the growth vigour and promote flower formation.

3. Trees in the full fruiting stage: Adjust the tree structure well to improve light and air conditions within the canopy. Excess upright branches, overly dense branches, overlapping branches, and crossing branches that emerge within the canopy should be resolutely thinned out, opening up the spacing between layers so as not to disrupt the tree shape or consume nutrients. For trees that are too tall, promptly drop the top and open the center, using a weak branch as the leader to control canopy height.

Cherry Tree Pruning Techniques

1. Natural open-center shape: The tree shape is similar to the natural open-center shape of peach trees, with a trunk height of 30-40 cm, no central leader, 3-5 main branches on the whole tree, an opening angle of 30-40 degrees, and 2-3 lateral branches retained on each main branch, extending outward with an opening angle of 70-80 degrees. Different types of fruiting branch groups are cultivated on the main branches and lateral branches. Tree height is controlled at about 3 m, and the canopy is oblate or round.

2. Improved central leader shape: Trunk height 50-60 cm, with an upright central leader. More than 10 single-axis extending main branches are arranged on the central leader, spirally attached to the central leader, with angles nearly horizontal. The main branches can be in tiers or not obviously tiered. Fruiting branch groups are borne on the main branches. Tree height is generally about 3 m. When planting density is low, it can be taller, and when density is high, it can be shorter.

3. Free spindle shape: There is 1 upright, robust central leader, and 10-12 small main branches are retained on the whole tree, distributed on the central leader. The lower main branches are longer, and the upper main branches are shorter, with a trunk-to-branch ratio of 3-3.5:1. The main branches can be arranged with 3-4 at the base as one tier, with an in-tier spacing of 30-40 cm; further up, the main branches are no longer tiered, so that the main branches are arranged in a spiral, evenly staggered upward. The main branches are large at the bottom and small at the top. On the same tree, the opening angle of the main branches differs according to their position: the angle of the lower main branches is 80-85 degrees, and the angle of the middle and upper main branches is 85-90 degrees. The whole tree has main branches but no lateral branches, and fruiting branch groups are directly on the main branches.

4. Slender spindle shape: It has a central leader, trunk height 40-60 cm, tree height 2-3.5 m, canopy diameter 1.5-2.5 m. The first tier has three main branches, and the main branches have no lateral branches but directly bear fruiting branch groups. On the central leader above the first tier of main branches, 15-25 lateral branches of relatively uniform size and horizontal growth are evenly distributed, arranged in whorls without tiering. The lower branches are slightly longer and the upper branches slightly shorter. The whole tree is slender, with an acute angle at the top, and the entire tree shape is a slender spindle, suitable for dense dwarf cultivation.

5. Small-canopy delayed-open center shape: Trunk height 30-60 cm, tree height 3.0-3.5 m, canopy diameter 3.0-3.5 m. There are 6 main branches in 3 tiers: 3 in the first tier, 2 in the second tier, and 1 in the third tier. The basal angle of the main branches is 60-70 degrees, and the inter-tier spacing is 60 cm. Main branches above the second tier do not retain lateral branches and directly bear fruiting branch groups.

Precautions for Cherry Tree Pruning

1. Winter pruning can be carried out throughout the entire dormancy period, but for cherries, the later the better; generally, pruning near bud break is preferable.

2. Cherry flower buds are lateral pure flower buds, and the terminal bud is a leaf bud. After flowering and fruiting, the flower buds form blind nodes and no longer sprout. When pruning fruiting branches, the bud at the cut should not be left on a flower bud, but should be left on 2-3 leaf buds above the flower bud section.

3. After the trunk and branches of the tree are injured, they are prone to infection by pathogens, leading to gummosis or disease. Therefore, in field management, special care should be taken not to damage the tree body and branches. Girdling techniques should be used cautiously on cherry trees, as gummosis and breakage are likely after girdling.

4. Cherry trees are light-loving and strongly apically dominant. If too many peripheral branches are headed back during training and pruning, the number of peripheral branches will become too large, branches will become crowded, the top will be strong and the bottom weak, and small branches and fruiting branch groups in the inner canopy will easily weaken and die.

5. Attention should be paid to cultivar characteristics.

6. After girdling large cherry trees, wounds heal relatively slowly. Be careful that the girdling width does not exceed 0.5 cm. Moreover, because the tree vigour of large cherries differs, especially in trees with little organic fertilizer applied, gummosis is prone to occur. Therefore, it should be used cautiously in production, and only applied after gaining some experience.