Master Pruning: How to Prune a Cherry Tree for Big…

Dreaming of juicy, abundant cherry harvests? Often, the secret to a thriving cherry tree isn’t just sunlight and water; it’s the art of pruning. You might be wondering, “When and how do I even start cutting back my cherry tree?” It can seem daunting, but fear not! Pruning is an essential practice that encourages healthy growth, improves fruit production, and keeps your tree manageable.

We’re here to demystify the process. By understanding the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of pruning, you’ll transform your tree from a potential problem into a productive, beautiful addition to your garden. Get ready to unlock the full potential of your cherry tree!

Why Prune Your Cherry Tree? The Essential Benefits

Pruning might sound a little intimidating, like you might ‘hurt’ your tree. But think of it as a vital haircut! We prune cherry trees for several key reasons, all contributing to their overall health, longevity, and fruitfulness. Understanding these benefits will make the process feel much more purposeful.

1. Enhancing Fruit Production and Quality

This is often the primary driver for home gardeners. Pruning helps to:

• Increase Sunlight Penetration: By opening up the canopy, more sunlight can reach the developing fruit. This means better ripening, sweeter cherries, and a more even distribution of the harvest.
• Improve Air Circulation: A well-pruned tree allows air to flow freely through its branches. This is crucial for drying off dew and rain quickly, significantly reducing the risk of fungal diseases that can ruin your crop.
• Stimulate New Fruiting Wood: Many cherry varieties produce fruit on spurs, which are short, stubby branches that develop over time. Pruning encourages the growth of new spurs and revitalizes old ones, ensuring a consistent supply of fruit year after year.
• Manage Fruit Size: While not its primary purpose, thinning out some of the fruit load through pruning can lead to larger, more desirable cherries.

2. Maintaining Tree Health and Vigor

Beyond fruit, pruning is vital for the tree’s well-being:

• Removing Dead, Diseased, or Damaged Wood: This is a fundamental aspect of pruning. These branches are entry points for pests and diseases and can weaken the entire tree. Removing them promptly is a no-brainer for tree health.
• Preventing Water Sprouts and Suckers: These are vigorous, upright shoots (water sprouts) or shoots that emerge from the base of the tree (suckers). They drain energy from the main tree and can create an overly dense canopy.
• Strengthening the Structure: Proper pruning helps develop a strong framework of scaffold branches, reducing the likelihood of breakage from wind, snow, or heavy fruit loads.

3. Controlling Tree Size and Shape

Especially important for home gardens, pruning allows you to:

• Keep the Tree Manageable: Without pruning, cherry trees can become enormous, making harvesting, spraying, and general maintenance a significant challenge.
• Create an Appealing Form: You can train your tree into a more aesthetically pleasing shape, whether it’s a traditional vase shape or a more compact form.
• Facilitate Access: A smaller, well-shaped tree is easier to access for picking, netting against birds, and conducting any necessary treatments.

When Is the Best Time to Prune Cherry Trees? Timing Is Everything!

The ‘when’ of pruning is as critical as the ‘how’. Pruning at the wrong time can lead to sap loss, disease susceptibility, or reduced fruiting. For cherry trees, there are two main pruning windows, each serving a different purpose.

Late Winter to Early Spring (dormant Pruning)

This is the most common and often considered the best time for major structural pruning. We’re talking about pruning after the harshest winter cold has passed but before the buds begin to swell significantly. For most temperate climates, this falls between February and early April.

Why this time? (See Also: how to remove tree sap from car)

• Visibility: With no leaves, you can clearly see the tree’s structure, making it easier to identify branches to remove.
• Reduced Disease Risk: Many common cherry diseases, like bacterial canker, are less active during colder weather. Pruning wounds have a better chance to heal before warmer, wetter conditions arrive.
• Less Sap Loss: While some sap flow is inevitable, it’s generally less than during active growth periods.
• Encourages Vigorous Growth: Pruning during dormancy signals the tree to put its energy into new growth when spring arrives.

Summer Pruning (light Pruning)

This type of pruning is typically done after the fruit has been harvested, usually in June or July. It’s a lighter touch than dormant pruning and serves specific goals.

Why this time?

• Controlling Vigorous Growth: Summer pruning helps to slow down excessive vegetative growth, especially water sprouts and fast-growing shoots. This redirects energy towards fruit bud development for the following year.
• Improving Light Penetration: Thinning out some of the dense summer foliage can help the remaining fruit ripen better and can also improve air circulation.
• Preventing Overcrowding: Removing some of the new, non-fruiting wood can prevent the canopy from becoming too dense.
• Observing Growth Habits: You can see exactly where the growth is happening and make more precise cuts to shape the tree.

What to Avoid: Pruning During Wet Weather

A crucial point: Never prune during wet or very humid conditions. This is when fungal spores are most active and can easily infect pruning cuts, leading to significant disease problems. Always ensure your tools and the tree are dry before making any cuts.

How to Prune a Cherry Tree: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now for the practical part! Armed with the right tools and a clear understanding of your goals, pruning becomes a manageable and rewarding task. We’ll focus on dormant pruning first, as it’s the most impactful for structure and health.

Essential Pruning Tools

Before you begin, make sure you have the right equipment. Using dull or dirty tools can damage the tree and spread disease.

Step 1: Assess Your Tree and Set Goals

Before making any cuts, take a step back and look at your tree. What are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to:

• Open up the center?
• Remove crossing branches?
• Reduce the height?
• Encourage fruit production on specific areas?

Visualizing the desired outcome will guide your pruning decisions.

Step 2: Remove the ‘four D’s’ First

This is the golden rule of pruning for health. Always start by removing: (See Also: how to draw a tree easy)

• Dead Wood: Branches that are brittle, discolored, and show no signs of life.
• Diseased Wood: Branches with unusual spots, cankers, or signs of fungal infection.
• Damaged Wood: Broken, cracked, or rubbing branches.
• Dying Wood: Branches that are clearly struggling or showing signs of decline.

Make these cuts back to healthy wood. If you’re unsure if a branch is dead, scratch off a bit of bark; if you see green underneath, it’s alive.

Step 3: Address Crossing and Rubbing Branches

Branches that grow into each other or rub together will eventually create wounds that invite disease and pests. Choose the weaker or poorly positioned branch and remove it. Aim for a structure where branches have ample space and don’t interfere with each other.

Step 4: Open Up the Center (vase Shape)

Many cherry trees naturally grow into a vase or goblet shape. This is ideal for sunlight penetration and air circulation. If your tree is growing too densely in the center:

• Identify any inward-growing branches or those that obscure the center.
• Remove branches that compete with the main scaffold limbs, especially those growing at narrow angles. A strong scaffold branch typically forms a 45-60 degree angle with the trunk. Narrow angles are weak and prone to breakage.
• Aim for a relatively open center, allowing light and air to reach all parts of the tree.

Step 5: Control Height and Spread

If your tree is getting too tall or wide, you can manage its size. To reduce height, identify a strong lateral branch growing outwards below the point where you want to reduce the height. Cut the leader back to this lateral branch. This encourages growth to continue outwards rather than straight up.

Step 6: Thin Out Overcrowded Areas

Look for areas where branches are too close together. Select the best-positioned branch and remove the others. This applies to both main branches and smaller twigs. The goal is to have branches spaced adequately, typically 6-12 inches apart, depending on the tree’s age and vigor.

Step 7: Pruning Young Trees (training)

The first few years of a cherry tree’s life are crucial for establishing its structure. The aim is to encourage a strong framework.

1. Year 1: After planting, select 3-5 well-spaced scaffold branches. Remove any competing branches, branches growing downwards, or those with narrow angles.
2. Year 2-3: Continue to train the scaffold branches. Remove any shoots that grow inward or downward. Encourage outward-growing laterals.
3. Ongoing: Maintain the structure by removing water sprouts, suckers, and any branches that compromise the framework.

Step 8: Pruning Mature Trees (maintenance)

Once your tree has reached its desired size and structure, pruning shifts to maintenance:

• Focus on removing the ‘Four D’s’.
• Thin out any overly dense areas to maintain light and air circulation.
• Remove any branches that are growing at awkward angles or interfering with other branches.
• Encourage new fruiting wood by making thinning cuts rather than heading cuts (cutting back the tip of a branch). Thinning cuts remove an entire branch back to its origin or to a larger lateral branch, which redirects energy effectively.

Making the Cut: Proper Pruning Techniques

How you make the cut is as important as what you cut. Always make clean, sharp cuts. (See Also: how many magic tree house books are there)

1. Cutting Back to a Bud

When shortening a branch, cut about 1/4 inch above an outward-facing bud. Angle the cut away from the bud so water runs off. This encourages the new growth to grow away from the tree’s center.

2. Thinning Cuts

To remove an entire branch, cut it back to its point of origin or to a larger lateral branch. This is done just outside the branch collar, which is the slightly swollen area where the branch joins the trunk or a larger limb. Never cut flush, as this damages the collar and hinders healing. Also, avoid leaving a long stub, as this can die back and invite disease.

3. The Three-Cut Method for Large Branches

For larger branches that could tear the bark if cut from the top, use the three-cut method:

1. Undercut: About 6-12 inches away from the trunk, make a cut from the underside of the branch, about one-third to one-half of the way through. This prevents the branch from tearing the bark as it falls.
2. Top Cut: A few inches further out from the undercut, make a cut from the top all the way through the branch. The branch will now break off cleanly at the undercut.
3. Final Cut: Remove the remaining stub by making a clean cut just outside the branch collar, as described above.

Dealing with Specific Issues

Water Sprouts and Suckers

These are usually removed during dormant pruning. If they are very vigorous and you want to control them more aggressively, you can also remove them in summer.

Bird Protection

While not strictly pruning, netting is a crucial part of cherry tree management. Pruning to keep the tree at a manageable height makes netting much easier!

Pruning Sweet vs. Tart Cherries

Generally, the pruning principles are the same for both sweet (Prunus avium) and tart (Prunus cerasus) cherries. However, tart cherries are often more vigorous and may require slightly more aggressive pruning to control their size and maintain good fruit production. Sweet cherries tend to be more susceptible to fungal diseases, so good air circulation is paramount.

Common Pruning Mistakes to Avoid

Even with the best intentions, some pruning errors can set your tree back. Here are a few to watch out for:

• Over-pruning: Removing too much of the tree at once (more than 25-30% of the canopy) can shock the tree and reduce fruit production for a year or two.
• Pruning at the Wrong Time: As discussed, avoid wet weather and too late in spring.
• Leaving Stubs or Cutting Too Flush: Both hinder healing and invite disease. Always aim for a clean cut just outside the branch collar.
• Using Dull or Dirty Tools: Leads to ragged cuts and disease transmission.
• Not Having a Plan: Wandering into pruning without a clear goal can lead to haphazard cuts that don’t benefit the tree.

Verdict on Pruning Your Cherry Tree

Pruning your cherry tree might seem like a daunting task, but it’s an investment that pays dividends in delicious fruit and a healthy, long-lived tree. By understanding the timing, using the right tools, and following these simple techniques, you can confidently shape your tree for optimal growth and abundant harvests. Remember to start with the ‘Four D’s’, open up the center, and always make clean cuts. Happy pruning!

Recommended Products

No products found.