Pruning Your Cherry Tree: A Comprehensive Guide for Gardeners

Shaping Your Young Cherry Tree: A Guide to Pruning

Cherry trees, with their blossoms in spring and bounty of fruit in summer, are a delightful addition to any garden. However, to ensure your tree thrives and yields a plentiful harvest, proper pruning is essential, especially during its early years. This guide will walk you through the process of pruning a young cherry tree, focusing on the goals of promoting lower growth and maintaining a desirable shape.

Understanding Your Cherry Tree

Before you begin, it’s helpful to understand the specifics of your tree. The provided information suggests a 3-year-old ‘Stella’ cherry tree, which is a self-pollinating variety known for its early and abundant fruit production. The rootstock is designed to keep the tree’s eventual height to around 4 meters, a size more manageable for home gardens. This information is vital as it shapes pruning decisions.

Goals of Pruning a Young Cherry Tree

The primary goals when pruning a young cherry tree are:

• Shaping the Tree: Pruning helps establish a strong framework of branches, promoting good air circulation and sunlight penetration.
• Promoting Fruit Production: Proper pruning encourages the development of fruiting spurs, which are short, stubby branches where the tree produces fruit.
• Controlling Size and Shape: By pruning, you can manage the tree’s size and shape, making it easier to harvest fruit and maintain the tree.
• Encouraging Lower Growth: Your specific aim is to encourage growth lower down on the tree, making it more accessible and preventing the ‘pollarded’ appearance, where growth is concentrated at the top.

Essential Tools for Pruning

Having the right tools will make the pruning process easier and more effective:

• Pruning Shears (Hand Pruners): For cutting branches up to about 1/2 inch in diameter.
• Loppers: For cutting thicker branches, up to 1.5 inches in diameter.
• Pruning Saw: For cutting branches that are too thick for loppers.
• Gloves: To protect your hands.
• Ladder or Step Stool: For reaching higher branches.
• Disinfectant (Rubbing Alcohol or Bleach Solution): To sterilize your tools and prevent the spread of diseases.

Timing is Everything: When to Prune

The best time to prune a cherry tree is typically during the dormant season, which is late winter or early spring (February or March), before the buds begin to swell. Pruning during this time minimizes stress on the tree and reduces the risk of disease. However, light pruning can also be done in the summer to remove any dead, diseased, or crossing branches.

Pruning Techniques

1. Initial Inspection: Before you begin pruning, take a good look at your tree. Identify any dead, damaged, or diseased branches. These should be the first to go.
2. Opening the Canopy: The goal is to open the tree’s canopy to allow sunlight and air circulation. Remove any branches that are growing inward, crossing each other, or rubbing against each other. These branches can create shade and reduce air flow, which can lead to diseases.
3. Heading Cuts vs. Thinning Cuts:
   • Heading Cuts: These cuts remove the tip of a branch, encouraging new growth from the buds just below the cut. They are often used to stimulate growth and to encourage branching.
   • Thinning Cuts: These cuts remove an entire branch back to its point of origin (where it joins another branch or the trunk). Thinning cuts open up the canopy and improve air circulation. This type of cut is critical for encouraging the lower growth you desire.
4. Encouraging Lower Growth: To promote growth lower on the tree, you’ll need to remove branches higher up. The pruning technique of choice here is the thinning cut. By removing branches that shade the lower parts of the tree, you’ll encourage the growth of new shoots and branches lower down. Consider heading cuts on lower branches to encourage outward growth as well.
5. Branch Angle: The angle at which a branch grows from the trunk is important. Branches that grow at a wide angle are stronger and more likely to bear fruit than those that grow at a narrow angle. Aim to remove branches with narrow angles, as they are more prone to splitting under the weight of fruit or snow.
6. Leader Management: Your ‘Stella’ cherry tree is likely a central-leader tree, meaning it has a dominant central trunk. You can maintain the central leader to control the height. However, if you prefer a more open shape, you can prune the central leader to a side branch. When pruning the leader, make sure that the new top branch is strong and well-positioned.
7. Making the Cuts: Make clean cuts just outside the branch collar (the swollen area at the base of the branch). Avoid leaving stubs, as they can be entry points for disease. For larger branches, use the three-cut method to prevent tearing the bark:
   • Cut 1: Make a shallow cut on the underside of the branch, a few inches from the trunk.
   • Cut 2: Make a cut from the top of the branch, slightly further out from the first cut, until the branch falls.
   • Cut 3: Remove the remaining stub, cutting just outside the branch collar.

Year-by-Year Pruning: A Practical Approach

Pruning is not a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process. Here’s a general guide on how to prune your 3-year-old cherry tree and beyond:

• Year 3 (Current Year):
  • Remove any dead, damaged, or diseased branches.
  • Open the canopy by removing inward-growing, crossing, and rubbing branches.
  • Thin out crowded areas to improve air circulation.
  • Begin encouraging lower growth. Remove some of the higher branches back to the trunk. Be careful not to remove too much at once.
  • If you have a central leader, assess its strength and position.
• Year 4:
  • Continue to remove any dead, damaged, or diseased branches.
  • Maintain the open canopy shape.
  • Continue encouraging lower growth by thinning out selected branches higher on the tree. Avoid cutting too much at once. The aim is to remove about 20-30% of the tree’s branches per year, to avoid shocking the tree.
  • Watch for the development of fruiting spurs. Avoid pruning them if possible.
• Year 5 and Beyond:
  • Continue regular maintenance, removing dead, damaged, or diseased wood and maintaining the tree’s shape.
  • Prune to maintain the desired size and shape.
  • After the tree begins bearing fruit, prune lightly after harvest to remove any branches that bore fruit and to encourage new growth for the following year.

Avoiding Common Pruning Mistakes

• Over-Pruning: Avoid removing too much of the tree at once. This can stress the tree and reduce its fruit production. As a general rule, you shouldn’t remove more than 20-30% of the tree’s branches in any given year.
• Topping the Tree: Do not cut off the top of the central leader. This can create a bushy, unnatural shape and weaken the tree.
• Leaving Stubs: Always cut branches back to their point of origin or just outside the branch collar. Leaving stubs can lead to disease and decay.
• Pruning at the Wrong Time: Avoid pruning during the growing season (late spring to early fall), as this can increase the risk of disease.

Monitoring and Maintenance

After pruning, monitor your tree for any signs of stress, such as wilting leaves or dieback. Water the tree regularly, especially during dry periods. Fertilize the tree in early spring with a balanced fertilizer. Protect the tree from pests and diseases by monitoring for any signs of infestation or infection. Promptly address any problems you find.

Conclusion

Pruning your young cherry tree is an essential practice that will pay dividends in the form of a healthy, productive tree. By following these guidelines, you can shape your tree to promote lower growth, improve air circulation, and encourage abundant fruit production. Remember to be patient and observant, and don’t be afraid to seek advice from local gardening experts if you have any questions.