How to prune trees?

Competent timely pruning of fruit and berry crops serves the garden exclusively for the good. Knowing when and how to prune trees can speed up fruiting and increase yields, improve the palatability of the fruit, and extend the life of the plants themselves.

Tools for pruning trees

It is a mistake to believe that works in the garden, you can lead the usual carpentry set. A garden tool has its own specifics, somewhat similar to a medical one. The task is approximately the same as that of a surgeon - to remove unnecessary and dead tissues and organs, while damaging healthy ones as little as possible.

The garden hacksaw is narrower and shorter, with a crescent-shaped blade. With such a tool, you can get close to the most inaccessible branches without injuring the bark of the neighboring ones. The corners of the blade should be rounded and the teeth should be sharp. The hacksaw should leave a neat, smooth cut.

The pruner is used for cutting the smallest branches. Although larger shoots lend themselves to the pruner, the wood fibers are crumpled at the same time, and subsequently such a cut overgrows for a very long time. Many experienced gardeners prefer to trim small branches with a sharpened knife.

As a rule, these two tools are enough for the novice gardener. The professional equipment includes loppers, hedge trimmers of various designs and top-tier pruners (pole saws).

You will need a garden var. You can make it yourself or buy it. To pull off the branches, you will need a rope, preferably not synthetic, and pegs.

Season of pruning

This type of garden work is carried out at a time when the plants are at rest and there is no sap flow, that is, in the autumn-winter period. In regions with a mild climate, trees and shrubs are cut from November to March, in Russia it all depends on the weather. At temperatures below minus 2 ᵒC, the wood becomes brittle, and the shoots break not only when pressed, but also from shaking the crown. In the thaw, pruning is allowed.

In the middle lane, the most favorable time is considered to be the end of February and March, until the buds swell. Autumn pruning is a risky undertaking: in a particularly frosty winter, some of the remaining branches may die, there will be nothing to replace them, which will lead to the loss of the entire tree. In autumn, branches are removed from dwarf and elfin forms, as well as from berry bushes, that is, from those plants that winter under the snow.

Pruning during a period of intense sap flow can lead to serious consequences - from the loss of part of the crop to the death of the plant.

However, some operations are recommended to be carried out during the warm season. For example, so that fat shoots (tops) and root shoots do not have time to deplete the tree, they are removed as they grow back. The same is done with those branches that rub each other's bark in the wind. Forks of the main trunk are eliminated as early as possible, leaving a strong shoot. Curved, "ankle" branches are also removed.

Longline pruning is the most versatile. The crown is formed, leaving 2-3 healthy, strong shoots in each tier. The branches should not be located one above the other, so as not to shade the underlying ones. The harmonious structure of the crown implies subordination - that is, the lower, the thicker the branches should be, and the trunk is the most powerful.

Do not cut off two shoots growing opposite each other - this will lead to the emergence of a through hole.

When projected onto the ground, a properly cropped crown should look something like the diagram below. The dotted line shows the branches of the overlying tiers.

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Pruning a fruit tree in the third (A) and subsequent (B) years of cultivation

The result can be visually estimated by what kind of shade the blossoming crown gives. The sun's rays should penetrate the foliage to the ground, giving a light, delicate shade without holes or dark areas. Chinese gardening treatises recommend leaving so many branches in the crown "so that a sparrow can fly between them."

Bowl-shaped is given to berry bushes and semi-shrubs. In this case, the main goal is thinning. The weakest shoots with fewer fruit buds, old and drooping ones are removed. Approximately 20 cm is left from one branch to another.

There is a special group of pome varieties - creeping. A specific technology is applied to them, including both pruning and bending the shoots as low as possible to the ground. Such apple trees can be grown in northern latitudes, up to the Arctic. An extensive collection of regionalized creeping varieties is available at the Krutovsky Garden experimental production farm near Krasnoyarsk.

There is a definite relationship between the shape of the crown and the growing region of the tree. The farther north, the more spindle-shaped the silhouette of the plant should be - so that all branches are illuminated by the low sun. And vice versa, the southern gardens are formed like "palmette", that is, palm-like. Plants look exactly the same in nature - the farther south, the more spreading the tree is in width.

The correct cut

The speed of wound healing depends on how the cut is made.

Large branches that are subject to complete removal are cut at the very base, above the annular inundation of the bark. First, a cut is made from below, then a cut from above. If you do not make a bottom cut, the falling branch will pull off the bark tape behind it, and the tree will be seriously injured.

Extra thick branches are cut in three steps: the bottom cut, then the upper cut 2-3 cm from the base, and the final removal hemp.

Thin and medium-sized shoots are cut 0.5-1 cm above the eye of the outer bud. A healthy kidney is selected, large and reliable. The plane of cut should be oblique, directed from the kidney downward at an angle of 45ᵒ. The diagram below shows cropping options.

Sections are covered with garden pitch. Experienced gardeners prefer not to use a spatula or gloves, the mixture is applied by hand. In the palm of your hand, the var heats up and envelops the wood tissue better.

There are no identical trees

The heights of mastery are reached only by the gardener who realizes that each tree is individual. The breed and age of the plant, varietal characteristics, local climate and other factors should be taken into account. Even if the specimens are of the same age and of the same variety, two identical living organisms do not exist in nature. You need to know the peculiarities of plant development and foresee how this or that shoot will behave in the future.

A vivid example of a competent approach is the video of a master class on forming the crown of a young apple tree.

Pruning a fruit tree continues throughout its life, this is not a momentary operation, but a laborious process that requires skill and patience. But the hassle is worth it - few things in the world can compare in beauty with a well-tended garden.

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