How to prune the branches and shoots of honeysuckle? A detailed guide to management methods
1. Training
For honeysuckle, the training and pruning work should be basically completed within 2 years after planting, to form a high-yielding tree shape. Honeysuckle is a woody vine with a large growth volume and is easy to train. Three tree shapes are suitable in production: the trunk-mound round-headed form, the prostrate fan form, and the trellis three-main-branch fan form.
The first is pruning for the trunk-mound round-headed form.After planting, the seedlings should be topped and the tips removed in good time. After new shoots sprout, keep one shoot as the main trunk, and remove the rest. When the main trunk training branch grows to 60 cm long, top it to promote branching, and strive to develop three or four sturdy branches. All sprouting branches on the main trunk below 50 cm must be removed to promote thickening and upright growth into a mound. During the first 3 years of training the main trunk, new branches should be topped in sequence to promote branching and spread branches in all directions, forming an umbrella-shaped round-headed tree shape that is small at the top and large at the bottom, hollow inside and round outside. The trunk-mound round-headed form is currently one of the main tree shapes for honeysuckle.
The second is prostrate fan-shaped training. After planting, keep one branch as the main trunk for training when new shoots sprout, and top it in good time when it grows to 60 cm long to promote branching. When new shoots sprout after topping, all new shoots on the main trunk below 50 cm should be removed, and on both sides above 50 cm keep one new shoot each as secondary main branches for training, while letting the terminal new shoot continue extending growth as the main branch. Thereafter, each of the three branches should be topped once every time it grows to 60 cm, training 2 branches each time, gradually forming a three-vine fan-shaped tree shape with one main branch, two secondary branches, and many lateral branches. This tree shape is suitable for steep slopes, mountain-foot land, lower terrace walls, and other conditions where prostrate crawling growth is possible.
The third is trellis fan-shaped training.The training method and steps for this tree shape are the same as for prostrate fan-shaped training. The difference is that there is a trellis to climb on, and the branches are tied horizontally or in a fan shape on the trellis. The tree body develops upright into the space, with good ventilation and light transmission, and has greater production capacity. It is the main tree shape for high-quality, high-yield standardized cultivation.
2. Maintenance pruning.
Maintenance pruning is the basic means of regulating the relationship between vegetative growth and reproductive growth of the plant throughout the production period. Under certain cultivation conditions, pruning can achieve the goals of controlling the canopy, stabilizing yield, improving light, reducing pests and diseases, and improving quality, maintaining the normal life activities of the tree body, and maximizing the economic growth years of the tree body. The pruning intensity of maintenance pruning should be mainly light pruning; the pruning method should be mainly thinning, with removal as secondary, and appropriate heading back; the pruning targets are diseased and pest-damaged branches, dead and dry branches, densely growing branches, overlapping branches, and aged branches, that is, cutting off diseased, pest-damaged, and dead branches, thinning out densely growing branches and overlapping branches, removing useless large branches, and heading back some aged branches. The basic principle for keeping or removing branches in maintenance pruning is to remove the weak and keep the strong, remove the dense and keep the sparse, remove the upper and keep the lower, remove the inner and keep the outer. The pruning time varies depending on the pruning target. Pruning diseased and pest-damaged branches and dead and dry branches is carried out in early winter together with orchard cleanup. Pruning living branches is carried out from late February to early March. Summer pruning such as bud removal, shoot thinning, and pinching is carried out at any time as needed.
3. Renewal pruning.
When the plant has grown for a certain number of years or is affected by poor cultivation conditions, resulting in undesirable conditions such as plant aging, declining yield, and deteriorating quality, renewal pruning should be carried out. Renewal pruning is carried out in early to mid-March. For honeysuckle, renewal pruning is mainly renewal by cutting back, cutting back branches and shoots at all levels on the secondary main branches to the node where natural renewal branches appear; for plants without natural renewal branches, cut back to the node where lateral branches emerge from the secondary main branches. In particular, renewal pruning can only be effective when good fertilizer and water management is the precondition. After renewal pruning, whitening the main trunk and main branches and applying medicine to wounds (lime-sulfur mixture, etc.) should be done well to strengthen tree protection; when new shoots sprout after pruning, branch and shoot management such as shoot thinning, shoot fixing, and pinching should be strengthened to promote the rapid formation of a new tree shape.