When/where to prune cherry trees?
Gary Sutcliff (Ledyard CT Z6)
5 years ago
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oracleofmn
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Purple Sand Cherry - when to prune?
Comments (1)You have Prunus x cistena. Prune right after bloom....See MoreKwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree: when to prune?
Comments (3)if a recent transplant.. within the last two years.... every leaf is a feeding machine to the young tree ... cut some off .... and you reduce its ability to grow roots to get more fully established ... personally .. i would not prune for the first 2 or 3 years ... except for broken or crossing limbs.. patience is ALWAYS rewarded when it come to trees ... and no.. fertilizer wont help ... time, proper water and proper mulch is all it needs.. a picture and some additional facts would be worth another thousand words of speculation .. ken...See MorePruning/grafting a cherry tree
Comments (4)Without seeing the tree or detailed photos, it is hard to tell you how to proceed :-) That could be why so little response to your question. Sweet cherries get to be BIG trees and for that reason are almost always grafted to a dwarfing rootstock, if not both that and a second interstock. And it is my experience that grafts on cherries tend to fail more than on a lot of other grafted fruits......one tends to see not a lot of multigraft variety cherries for that reason. And they tend to have a pretty pathetic reputation when you do :-) The small, dark-fruited cherry you describe sounds very much like an understock that has taken over. Generally with multigrafts, the varieties grafted are at least desirable and/or popular sweet cherry cultivars, not some semi-weedy, untasty, mostly pit type. If that is the case, you will be fighting a losing battle trying to contain this. How old/big is this tree? Might it make more sense to just replace it with a young, new, properly dwarf tree? There are self-fertile varieties of cherry if space is an issue and only one tree will fit. I'd choose a self-fertile type over a multigraft any day of the week....See MoreYoung Cherry Tree Pruning?
Comments (8)Good deal. Now I'm not saying no pruning ever. Just that at this stage, it is not only not needed, it is probably best to leave the tree be for now. Just a couple more general comments: It may sound funny coming from a guy who has literally pruned perhaps hundreds of thousands of trees in his time, but for the most part, trees know how to grow. So for example that exuberant burst of growth your cherry put on-it's all good. The stems will thicken, especially if the tree is allowed to wave around in the breeze. Later, like one or two years form now, you may in fact want to do some pruning. But most of the pruning we do on trees is for our needs, not those of the tree. So for example, someone might've planted a young oak tree in their yard, for eventual shade as well as all the many other benefits. So in time, they will want to "raise it up" some, which simply means removal of lower branches, so as to allow walking under the tree, mowing the lawn, etc. But these are human needs, not something the tree needs to have done to itself. And whereas forest-grown trees self-prune on their own, our open-grown trees, sunlight hitting them from every angle, will tend to develop lots of low, stout branches. This isn't "wrong" per se, but it might not meet our needs. One thing we do like to do is something called "leader training" which is basically setting the tree up with a strong structure, so as to allow it to function in the landscape for as long as possible. A technique you might want to look up, called subordination pruning, comes into play here. But those are mostly concerns with shade trees, not your ornamental cherry trees. Some overlap, but not completely. In any case, right now is not the time to do any of this1...See MoreGary Sutcliff (Ledyard CT Z6)
5 years agoA W
5 years agoGary Sutcliff (Ledyard CT Z6)
5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agosummersrhythm_z6a
5 years agoGary Sutcliff (Ledyard CT Z6)
5 years agosummersrhythm_z6a
5 years agoGary Sutcliff (Ledyard CT Z6)
5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agosummersrhythm_z6a
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoGary Sutcliff (Ledyard CT Z6)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agosummersrhythm_z6a
5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agoGary Sutcliff (Ledyard CT Z6)
5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agosummersrhythm_z6a
5 years agoGary Sutcliff (Ledyard CT Z6)
5 years agosummersrhythm_z6a
5 years agosummersrhythm_z6a
5 years agoGary Sutcliff (Ledyard CT Z6)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agosummersrhythm_z6a
5 years agoA W
5 years agosummersrhythm_z6a
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)