Cutting fruit trees
Already in old textbooks of horticulture it was written about the necessity to regularly prune all fruit trees. For several years, trees or shrubs that have not been cut become wild and bear little fruit, worse quality, and they also become more susceptible to disease and pests. To obtain healthy and wholesome fruit, it is necessary annually, proper pruning of both trees, and fruit bushes. Crowns of young trees, which were not cut right after planting, require significant corrections, the older ones, for various reasons, need total or partial transplantation. Trees that grow too vigorously and too large need to lower their crowns and shorten the branches. Diseased and damaged branches should be systematically removed, np. by hail, windstorms, low temperature and diseases and pests. Aging trees require a strong rejuvenation of the crown. After the old branches are shortened strongly, about half way through the crown, they grow strong on the branches, young shoots.
Wood is the capital of fruit trees and shrubs, the interest is fruit. Therefore, it is very important to properly care for each tree and shrub from the moment of planting until old age, taking into account the growth characteristics and the specific requirements of different species, varieties and forms of trees. Worth knowing, that every tree or shrub wants to complement it, what has been removed or shortened. According to Hilken-baumer, the main task of cutting trees, regardless of age, is to maintain a physiological balance throughout the crown between growth and yield. This is easier said than done. The problems start with the formation of crowns. Very often, too many branches hanging down or growing in a vertical position make it difficult for light to enter the crown, thus causing the death of fruiting shoots. Trees planted too densely react similarly.
In recent decades, the methods of pruning trees have changed significantly several times. Various forms were created - from natural to artificial. As a result of such frequent changes, the recommendations of experts were not always appreciated by fruit growers. Despite these difficulties, an experienced grower knows, where the annual shoot should be shortened. One must take into account the difference in length between leaf shoots and fruiting shoots in individual species of fruit plants and the differences in the time of transformation of leaf shoots into fruiting ones.. At the cherry, peach or vines, this period usually lasts two years. In apple trees, the period of fruit-bearing shoots development, sprouting up on the guide, lasts about three years. At the beginning of this century, in Kent, England, a pruning method was developed to shorten the shoots of one-year-olds, known as the Pillar method. Today it is also called spindle molding.
The correct formation of the crown should start immediately after planting the tree. In the first year, the first tier of the crown is formed with three side shoots loosely distributed on the guide. The crown is still being formed in the following years, and when the trees start bearing fruit, rejuvenating and sanitary cutting begins. The rejuvenating cut has a major impact on the annual formation of flower buds, also on these shoots, on which the fruit grows and ripens, for the ripening fruit produces substances, which inhibit the process of flower bud formation.
After a two or three-year break, fruit of lower quality grows on such an older shoot; this can be prevented by rejuvenating or transplanting the crown.