Rules For Pruning Felt Cherries. Photo

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Rules For Pruning Felt Cherries. Photo
Rules For Pruning Felt Cherries. Photo

Video: Rules For Pruning Felt Cherries. Photo

Video: Rules For Pruning Felt Cherries. Photo
Video: How To Make Felt Cherries - Felt Food - FREE Workshop 2024, March
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Felt cherry is one of the few stone fruit crops that literally grows by itself. There are no industrial plantations, it does not indulge in a grandiose harvest, but it was named so because the leaves of the felt cherry are not as rough as those of ordinary ones, but soft, like felt. Felt cherry often freezes and remains without a crop, mainly its flowers perish due to recurrent spring frosts, during the period of the onset of which the felt cherry blossoms. But if there are no such frosts, then the cherry will delight with the harvest, and, although the fruits will be small and the bone in them is noticeable, it is still pleasant and healthy to eat them.

Rules for pruning felt cherries
Rules for pruning felt cherries

Today, let's talk about pruning felt cherries, because either no one at all, or few people are engaged in this, why the crown of the cherry turns into a kind of ball - the center is exposed, the harvest is concentrated on the periphery of the crown, and naturally, it is seriously reduced. To prevent this from happening, we will give a series of useful tips.

Content:

  • General Features of Felt Cherry Pruning
  • Opening the crown of the felt cherry
  • Getting rid of vertical shoots
  • Pruning very old felt cherry bushes
  • When is the best time to prune felted cherries?
  • Pruning, depending on the crown of the felt cherry

General Features of Felt Cherry Pruning

Although felted cherries and shrubs, it can easily grow one and a half or even two meters and will look more like a small tree, so all types of pruning are applicable to it, as to ordinary cherries.

Our goal is to show exactly the rejuvenation of the felt cherry, which will certainly lead to an improvement in the appearance of the tree, and to an increase in yield, if done correctly.

Usually the scheme is very clear: this is the removal of old branches, pruning of middle-aged branches by about a third, removal of all old skeletal branches to the area where buds or lateral shoots of a branch begin to grow.

If the felt cherry tree is very old and its center begins to dry out or has already dried up, then you can safely cut out all the shoots that are located on the side branches, but be very careful with annual increments, since these are the life forces of our future felt tree and it is better not at all touch.

If you got a plot with heavily neglected felt cherry trees, then do not grab the saw and pruning shears to immediately, in one season, put the plot in order, do it gradually. Condition about one third of the plants in one season, otherwise felt cherries may die from abundant pruning, that is, you will not do better, but harm the plants.

Slow down the growth of the felt cherry

As you know, the felt cherry is not very active anyway, however, it is better to restrain it slightly so that the crown does not thicken too much and does not overgrow with unnecessary shoots. Every year, usually at the end of February or the beginning of March - the time that is considered optimal for cutting felt cherries, you need to trim each shoot by about five centimeters and cover each cut with garden varnish or garden paint.

Opening the crown of the felt cherry

Although the crown of the felt cherry can be called a crown with a big stretch, it is still there and, as a rule, it is pulled together, piled on one side. To change the direction of growth of the shoots, usually from vertical to horizontal, you need to take a new and clean twine, a piece of wooden stick, and a hacksaw (in case the stick is too long). Next, we just need to fix the stick in the ground so as to bend the branch we need with the twine in the right direction. This procedure can be carried out until about the second decade of the last summer month, but not later.

Please note: it is easy to bend and give a different direction to the shoots of the felt cherry if they are young, but the shoots of the felt cherry, the age of which has gone over three years, are usually very fragile and you need to be careful not to break them inadvertently. Before carrying out such an operation, the tree must be well watered, pouring a couple of buckets of water under it and wait an hour for the plant to be saturated with moisture. For this operation, it is better to choose a cloudy day and evening or morning time, so the risk of breaking a fragile and moisture-free branch will be minimal.

Sometimes a branch on a bush is directed so unsuccessfully that it is easier to cut it down into a ring than torment the plant and suffer yourself, but do not forget that all cuts, cuts, cuts, accidental wounds must be covered with garden varnish or garden paint.

Getting rid of vertical shoots

Pay attention to the vertical shoots - these are tops (felt cherries also have them). They are useless, pull off nutrients and do not produce fruit. Such shoots can be cut into a ring or, leaving the strongest from the heels, try to bend them, tying twine to them and tying them to the shoot located below.

Then the branch bent at an angle close to 90 0 can begin to bear fruit, and if it breaks in the process of bending, then cut it into a ring. By the way, in the future, follow the constrictions, and use twine, and not wire, which very easily cuts into the shoots. If you are worried about your tree, then put a piece of rubber between the twine and the shoots, which will protect the bark from injury. This procedure is appropriate to carry out in March or early April, when the branches of the felt cherry are as pliable as possible.

Even very old and neglected felt cherries can be rejuvenated by pruning
Even very old and neglected felt cherries can be rejuvenated by pruning

Pruning very old felt cherry bushes

Sometimes you may end up with an area where the felt cherry trees are so old that you don't know how to approach them. Usually this shrubs are much more than five years old, but if you do not want to uproot them, then you can help them.

First of all, remove all vertical shoots of felt cherries and skeletal branches by sawing them on the ring, they have already outlived theirs. The optimal time for this is from late March to early April.

Pruning a tree that is still bearing fruit, but is already considered quite old, has an overgrown crown, dry and abnormally growing shoots, it is permissible to carry out extremely early spring - until the end of the first decade of May. You need to start by removing all the shoots of the felt cherry, which greatly thickens the crown, while leaving those branches that leave the trunk at angles close to straight.

The next step is to cut out all the crooked shoots, of which there are quite a few felt cherries. Such shoots are usually formed due to the thickened crown, when literally every branch is fighting for the sun's ray. The next stage is the removal of all competing shoots: it is very easy to single out pairs of competing shoots - they grow in one direction.

It remains to shorten the central conductor near the felt cherry, making it so that it rises above the rest of the branches to a height of 14-17 cm and no more.

What should not be touched at the same time are annual shoots and shoots without lateral branches, but with living buds on them.

When is the best time to prune felted cherries?

The best time for pruning felt cherries is late March – early April, when serious freezing temperatures are no longer expected, but this time may shift. The main thing is that the pruning of felt cherries must be completely finished before flowering begins - this is very important.

Pruning felt cherries in the summer, is it necessary?

Many gardeners still argue about the need for summer pruning of felt cherries. Let's put an end to this question - you can cut the felt cherry in the summer, but only in July and if there is an urgent need for it. Usually, summer pruning of felt cherries is carried out only if the tree has broken shoots or if the shoots are affected by one or another disease. It is clear that after pruning, such shoots must be removed outside the territory of the site and destroyed.

Sometimes, in especially warm and humid years, and even when the gardener has gone too far with nitrogen, the felt cherry can literally shoot out young shoots. With a high degree of probability, they will not have time to ripen by winter and will simply die (freeze a little). In this case, you also need to carry out summer pruning.

Broken or diseased felt cherry shoots can and should be pruned even in summer
Broken or diseased felt cherry shoots can and should be pruned even in summer

Pruning, depending on the crown of the felt cherry

Felt cherry can grow in the form of a real bush or in the form of a tree with a height of one and a half to two meters, less often - higher, therefore, gardeners divide felt cherry into bush-like and tree-like plants, in this regard, slightly adjusting the pruning rules.

Pruning bushy felt cherry

Such a cherry very actively builds up its vegetative mass literally from the first season after planting in the garden, which (planting), by the way, should be carried out exclusively in spring. To understand that the tree is already old and needs pruning, it is possible for beginners to bare shoots. Such shoots can be safely cut by one third by performing this operation in late February or early March.

If there are too many growths of felt cherries and the cherry looks like a hedgehog, it is necessary to cut the shoots not in one season, but at least two or three, otherwise you will greatly weaken the plant, and it may even die.

At the end of such a cut, every year in early spring, be sure to thin out the crown, removing all the shoots that thicken it, or use a shaping specially invented for the bush felt cherry, which is called the "slender spindle". Its essence lies in the fact that periodically it is necessary to remove shoots one or two years old, cutting out the sprouted shoots.

Pruning a tree-like felt cherry

It can stretch by one and a half or two meters, it is important to reduce its growth by shortening all shoots by 20-25 centimeters in late February or early March. Such a shortening will actively stimulate the formation of bouquet branches and create a compact and low crown.

Naturally, you need to remove all those shoots that managed to grow during the season and are directed to the center of the crown, creating ballast unnecessary for the tree. Pay attention to dry shoots, they must also be removed.

All shoots that are a year old and longer than the length of a simple pencil can be safely cut off by five centimeters.

Formative pruning allows you to give the crown of the felt cherry a decorative spherical shape
Formative pruning allows you to give the crown of the felt cherry a decorative spherical shape

Felt cherry crown shaping

Even an old felt cherry tree can either be restored to its former crown shape or recreated. And with young plants, the situation is easier. In the initial six seasons, about seven shoots should be left on the tree for a tree-like felt cherry and no more than one and a half dozen shoots for a bushy one. All second-order skeletal branches should be cut in half.

Naturally, you need to remove all those shoots that grow deep into the crown, which will thicken this very crown in the future. Further, it remains to shorten all annual growths to a length of half a meter, otherwise the growth buds can be damaged.

Then we thin out the crown of the old felt cherry: we cut out all broken or damaged shoots, all shoots are thinner than a simple pencil and those that grow deeper into the crown. Those shoots that will become bare over time, having matured, must also be removed.

Conclusion. Felt cherry, although a simple tree or shrub, usually grows somewhere in the corner of the garden, sheltered from the cold winter winds and where more snow accumulates, but also needs pruning. First, decide what exactly grows on your site - is it a tree or is it a bush, and then proceed with those pruning techniques that we talked about.

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