To get a generous fruit harvest, you need to carefully and competently take care of your garden, namely, regularly prune trees. This process allocates all the resources in the tree to those parts of it that need them the most.
Why do you need garden pruning:
- Rejuvenation of the “body” of the plant and extension of its life.
- Modeling the shape and general appearance of the tree.
- Fertility regulation.
- Restoration of individual parts of the plant.
- General improvement and getting rid of unnecessary stress in the form of branches with leaves.
- Giving the plant new vitality
How to Prune Fruit Trees The Right Way Every Time
Pruning trees in spring
The procedure can be carried out immediately after the end of frost, but better during sap flow. To know for sure, you need to make a neat cut in the trunk with a garden knife. It is during this period that all slices overgrow as quickly as possible. You need to trim over the eyelet, which grows from the crown outward. On strong trees you can leave more than seven eyes, but on weak ones – two or three
Pruning trees in summer
To provide the crown with a sufficient amount of sunlight, you need to thoroughly thin it out. For this, green shoots without bark can be processed.
Such measures will help the plant conserve nutrients until autumn, so that they can then be sent to the fruits
Summer pruning techniques:
- breaking out young shoots that the crown does not need;
- breaking some branches in order to change the direction of their growth;
- pinching ensures the development of full-value wood at the mother branch, which subsequently improves the yield;
- pruning promotes flowering at the beginning of a young shoot already in the year when it began to grow;
- a clothespin of a plant is needed so that shoots germinate from awakened buds
Pruning trees in autumn
You can start treating plants with leaf fall. Grooming this time of year is especially good for weak and old apple trees and other diseased trees.
Pruning healthy annual shoots on the eve of winter is completely undesirable, but it is necessary to get rid of weakened infected parts. Cut off the affected parts and burn them to prevent the disease from spreading further and spreading to other plants in the garden. But remember that young seedlings, cherries, plums and pears do not tolerate autumn pruning, so leave them alone
Pruning trees in winter
Taking care of fruit trees in the cold season will be appropriate only in the southern regions of Ukraine, where winters are mild and there are no big frosts. For the process itself, choose a day when it is not lower than -5-7 ° C outside. The main advantage of winter pruning is that the plants are in hibernation at this time, so the stress is minimal. In addition, since there are no leaves, all branches are perfectly visible, which means that the cuts are smoother and of better quality
What you need to prune trees:
- hacksaw and saw directly for cutting;
- a sharp garden knife for cleaning the surface;
- plant wound healing agent;
- ladder;
- spatula or brush for treatment with the product.