If you want to harvest a lot of sour cherries in summer, you have to take good care of your sour cherry tree. This includes skillful pruning after the harvest. When which shoots the scissors see depends on whether it is a sweet cherries or a morello cherries.
Upbringing
In the first few years after planting, a framework is built up from a center and around four shoots. Scaffold drive extensions are cut by half in the first five years. Wild shoots are completely removed in summer. The sour cherry can also be raised as a shrub. Sour cherries, on the other hand, are less suitable as an espalier tree.
Time and frequency
Sour cherries generally start their flower buds in the previous year. Therefore, all varieties have in common that they should be blended immediately after harvest. This promotes this year's bud formation. The cut day should be cloudy but dry. The distances between two pruning measures and which shoots are shortened or must be removed, however, depends on which sour cherry group the variety belongs to. A distinction is made between sweet cherries and morello cherries.
Morello cherries
Morello cherries such as the 'Gerema' or 'Morellenfeuer' varieties only produce fruit on annual wood. These are shoots that were expelled in the previous year. After the harvest, these long shoots bald and only form short new shoots at the ends. These new shoots show only a small number of buds in the following year. They also tend to droop a lot. In order to prevent this from happening, every tree needs a strong pruning every year in order to form new fruit wood.
Sweetness
Sweet cherries like the varieties 'Koröser Weichsel' or 'Heimanns Rubinen Weichsel' bear fruit
annual but also on two and three year old shoots. They do not age as quickly as with morello cherries. Sweet puddings are therefore only thinned every two to three years.Tips for morello cherries
Implementing the following tips will help you get the most out of every cut. With the sour cherry tree it means in plain language: an even richer harvest!
1. Blend as early as possible
After the harvest, you theoretically have a few weeks to carry out the necessary pruning measures. But don't delay the cut too long. The sooner you reach for the scissors, the stronger the growing shoots will be. That promises a more abundant cherry harvest.
2. Clear out vigorously
Cut most of the harvested long shoots, so-called whip shoots. Only a quarter of the original length should remain of them.
3. Redirect to new shoots
When shortening, redirect each long shoot, if possible, to a freshly sprouted side branch. To do this, set the scissors just above the new shoot. Under no circumstances should you prune the new shoot itself.
4. Thin out excess shoots
Make sure that no more than three 20-25 cm long annual shoots remain per 10 cm guide branch length. You should completely remove excess shoots. To do this, select the weakest or most unfavorably growing shoots.
5. Correct steep shoots
Shoots with a vertical direction of growth are lazy to flower. Removing them with scissors isn't the only solution.
Especially if there are a lot of such shoots on the sour cherry tree, hardly anything would be left of it after pruning.- Increase the angle to the guide branch
- Use struts, weights or cords
- 60 ° angle is ideal
- act early
- the younger the branch, the more flexible it is
6. Combine harvest and pruning
Since almost every fruit shoot of the current year has to be cut in the morello cherries, you can combine the pruning with the harvest. If necessary, separate whole fruity twigs instead of plucking sour cherry for sour cherry. So there is little left to do after the harvest season is over.
7. Use the leading branches
Would you like to prevent the branches from drooping too much and the crown of your sour cherry from resembling a weeping willow? Then pull out leading branches from some long shoots. Instead of removing three-quarters of the length, cut where new branches are welcome.
8. Ensure good exposure
Over time, the crown of the sour cherry can become so dense that individual branches shade each other. Then you should not only shorten harvested shoots, but also prune perennial branches. As a result, the crown is also continuously tapered.
- not every year, only clear when necessary
- Shorten individual thick branches
- select the interface specifically
- always above the beginning of a younger instinct
- if not possible, cut on astring
In order to select exactly the right branches, you should look at the sour cherry tree from all sides in between. In this way you ensure that a harmonious crown build-up is maintained.
Sweetness
With sour cherries, you will not experience the problem of bald whip shoots. But their fruit wood will be exhausted after three to four years and will no longer bear any fruit. Therefore, regular new shoots must also be provided for them, while disused fruit wood must disappear from the tree.
1. Thinning out disturbing shoots
First, remove all dead and weak shoots. After that, all branches that grow unfavorably inward must be removed.
2. Shorten shoots that are too long
You should shorten fruit shoots that are still usable but very long. This promotes even more new fruit wood in the form of many short shoots.
3. Older fruit wood only
blendSince all shoots in this group can bear a lot of fruit for up to three years, they should also get the chance to do so. For you, it means less effort to prune as you mainly have to prune the three-year-old branches.
4. Redirect to younger instinct
Do not completely remove aged fruit wood. Instead, redirect it. Unlike morello cherries, it does not have to be a new shoot.
- redirect to a younger shoot in the rear area
- this can be a one or two year old shoot
- cut off the old branch just above it
5. Cut back the steep shoots on the tenons
Steep shoots are disruptive and do not bear fruit. In the case of the Vistula, it is best to cut them back on cones. This also applies to disruptive competitive instincts.
Taper cut
Both morello cherries and sweet cherries can age significantly if the maintenance cuts are not made for a longer period of time. Such a sour cherry tree is then very heavily branched. Due to the resulting network of branches, only a little light penetrates into the interior of the crown, it becomes bald. Delicious sour cherries are becoming scarce. Since the sour cherry can be pruned, such a tree does not have to be abandoned. A strong pruning must be done in the period from October to the end of February. If the tree is very old, the pruning measures may have to be taken. be spread over 2-3 years.
- cut dead wood on astring or saw
- derive heavily branched, drooping branches
- a young side shoot at the base is ideal
Tip: If a decayed branch cannot be diverted to a young side shoot, you can cut it back to a 10-15 cm long cone. In the following summer, choose two strong, diagonally horizontal new shoots. Remove the remaining shoots and the dried cones.
Pruning sick sour cherry tree
Regular prunings are also there to prevent diseases such as the dreaded Monilia peak drought. If it has conquered the sour cherry tree anyway, all affected branches must be removed and disposed of as residual waste. These pruning measures cannot be postponed until the harvest is over.
Tip: To minimize the risk of transmitting dangerous pathogens, you should disinfect the cutting tool used before and after each cutting. In addition, it should have sharp blades so that smooth cuts can be made.