All fruit-bearing trees need pruning, and cherries are no exception. These medium sized trees have to be pruned to keep them healthy and to ensure they bear fruit during the next season. Whether you have sour, sweet, or weeping cherry trees, knowing when and how to prune cherry tree is important.
If you want your cherry trees to produce more fruit, enjoy ease of care and harvest, and give them a groomed appearance, then you have to prune your trees. Below is a short cherry tree pruning guide to help you maintain a healthy and beautiful cherry tree.
Why it Needs Trimming
When you Prune cherry tree, or any other fruit tree, is very important for the health and fruit production of the tree. The main reason for trimming it is to make sure that the tree has the most access to sunlight. Pruning promotes aeration, letting light channels penetrate the tree, which makes it healthier. This leads to better fruit production, easier harvesting, and a healthier tree that can thwart or battle illnesses.
However, it’s also important that you prune or trim the tree correctly. Over-pruned trees have a tendency to re-grow their branches in an upright angle, leading to limb damage due to heavy fruit production.
When to Prune Cherry Tree
When it comes to pruning cherry trees, you need to do this when the trees are dormant. Any cherry tree pruning guide will tell you that winter time is the best time to start pruning most cherry trees, except for sweet varieties. They can become susceptible to problems like bacterial and fungal diseases when recent cuts are exposed to the cold, so they’re better off pruned during late summer when the weather is still a bit warm, and the tree is beginning to prepare itself for the fall. Also, it’s best to do thinning cuts during late summer pruning since cutting too much can have an effect on the tree’s growth and fruit production.
Dormant pruning is more aggressive compared to summer pruning. Large portions of the tree are actually removed, but the tree’s energy reserves stay the same. Timing also plays an important role in dormant pruning, and should be done during late winter to avoid any injuries to the tree. Weeping and sour fruit trees are pruned during this time, after the risk of frost damage has passed.
Another great time to prune your young cherry trees is during early spring. This lets you train and shape them before they blossom and bear fruit. You need to prune them as soon as their first buds come out, but only when the vegetative growth has reached a few inches. Older cherry trees can be pruned during early spring after they have bared fruits.
How to Prune Them
As any cherry tree pruning guide will tell you, you need to have the right tools ready before pruning the trees. It’s important that the cutters and pruners you’re using are clean so the trees won’t get sick. You’ll need a pair of long-handled lopping shears, a pruning saw, and a hand pruner. Bypass pruners do a better job since they can get closer cuts. Again, these tools need to be sterilized before using them to avoid spreading illness to the tree. A simple cleaning solution is to mix 9 parts of water to 1 part of bleach, cleaning your tools with the mix. After cleaning them, you should also dry them to avoid the development of rust.
Young trees need to be pruned with an open, vase-like shape so the air and sun light can easily get into the branches, increasing bloom and fruit abundance. As for older cherry trees, you should cut it in a way that it can promote outward growth. Use pruning saws and loppers to cut out parts of the tree. Older trees are a bit harder to work on, so it’s going to take a bit more work when you prune cherry tree.
Another thing to remember is to always clean up after you prune the trees. Cherry trees are prone to a number of diseases so it’s important to keep cut parts away from newly pruned trees. You can also use sealant to keep their new cuts protected.
If you’re still new to the gardening and pruning thing, you might want to get help from a company that offers tree pruning in Richmond Hill to ensure you’re cherry trees will make the most fruits and look well when spring comes in. Getting professional service also helps especially if you have more than a dozen trees in your property that you want taken care of.
