Pruning fruit trees in the summer in the garden - why is it needed? Summer pruning of fruit trees Is it possible to cut dry branches in summer

The discussion of garden pruning usually comes down to controversy: when is it preferable to do it - late autumn or in early spring. Question "Is it possible to prune an apple tree in summer?" not even discussed.

The classic advice to perform this operation only during the dormant period is based solely on tradition - "It's always been done that way". In confirmation, an iron argument is given - "juice goes in summer".

It is impossible to deny this, but the juice in the summer is not only for garden trees. But has anyone seen, for example, a maple shriveled from a broken branch? Vitality cultivated plants in no way inferior to the "savages".


Carrying out pruning during the dormant period of the garden is quite reasonable. And spring pruning can still be combined with tree grafting.

If terms spring pruning missed, pruning carried out outside of these tight timelines.

Is it possible to prune an apple tree in summer?

Pruning apple trees in the summer for beginners is most often needed in two cases:

  • Got it from the previous owner old garden in a very unsightly condition;
  • Self-planted young trees the seller advised "cut to size".

But bad luck, the timing of the spring pruning "according to all the rules" was missed. Need not be afraid go against the established "rules", perform this operation necessary for the garden late spring or summer.

At the summer pruning of the garden there are important benefits- very young branches, preferably just pinch nails of two fingers. Such a pinch is not at all does not damage the tree. On the contrary, new shoots at the beginning of summer grow even more intensively.

Advantages of the method:

  • After summer pruning, flower buds do not awaken in winter during thaws;
  • Flowering period for the garden next year shifts by about a week (this is quite enough to protect the ovaries from possible late frosts);
  • Thinning the crown in the summer allows you to provide full coverage of the internal branches of the tree, which positively affects not only the ripening of the fruit, but also improves the ventilation of the tree crown (the main preventive measure against fungal diseases of the apple tree);
  • Summer pruning is carried out not so much with a hacksaw and secateurs as with a garden knife. You can even break out unnecessary green shoots.
  • Summer pruning is much easier for a novice gardener than in cold period when the tree stands without leaves.

Important! Most often on household plots the trees are planted too densely. Trees are in contact with crowns and shade each other.

This cruel competition in the garden for light and water can be significantly loosen with simple tricks summer pruning.

Apple trees are in contact with crowns.

July

Is it possible to prune an apple tree in July? Undoubtedly. This is, first of all, removal of fatty shoots growing at an acute angle to the central stem.

Pruning an apple tree in July according to such a simplified scheme is not difficult even for beginner gardeners. The purpose of this operation is eliminate all growth for the previous 2 years of fruiting.

August

Is it possible to prune an apple tree in August? The answer is definitely positive. Operations with growing branches are practically no different from previous summer months.

Important! The apple tree should enter a healthy dormant period.

It is necessary to carefully monitor the condition of the tree - all diseased and pest-affected branches must be cut and removed from the site. This is easier to do than to cure the onset of the disease. Moreover, these weakened branches will not survive the winter anyway.

Pruning schemes for old apple trees

If the annual growth of shoots less than 30 centimeters and her fruits lost marketable condition - the apple tree needs anti-aging pruning.

Wherein remove branches:

  • Growing at an acute angle to the trunk (less than 60 degrees);
  • In vertically growing, a 2-year increase is removed.

Rejuvenating pruning.

On a moribund tree, a quality crop can be resumed if simple technique on all skeletal branches:

  • Cut an old branch (more than 3 years old) into a stump about 5-6 centimeters;
  • From the awakened shoots, the most successful one is chosen and a new branch is formed from it.

Young apple trees

The purpose of the formative pruning of a young apple tree is to control the ratio of the length of the central shoot and side branches to prevent their competition. So side branches should be trimmed regularly.

Pruning scheme for young apple trees.

Young apple trees in summer delete:

  • Sick and dry branches;
  • Part of the flower ovaries (so as not to weaken the young tree).

leave:

  • Continuation shoots are the strongest at the tops of last year;
  • Skeletal branches - located 2-3 nodes below the continuation shoots.

Everything else is removed, and young trees are processed anti-stress drug(doesn't matter which one).

How summer pruning of apple trees is carried out - the video will show you in detail:

As soon as the tree begins to actively grow again ( end of June), necessary pinch strong shoots to weaken the force of growth and induce the formation of fruit buds.

The preferred option would be if instead of pinching the shoots bend and fix the branches in a horizontal position. Such an operation accelerates the entry of young apple trees into fruiting.

Thus, the answer to the question "is it possible to prune the branches of an apple tree in summer?" will also be positive.

Pruning an apple tree in summer: a video for beginners

How can cropping be replaced?

Using summer pruning methods, you can practically do without traditional gardening tools:

  • Hacksaws;
  • Secateurs;
  • garden knife.

Manual pinching has already been mentioned above. This is not just a gentle method of shaping the garden. It is extremely convenient in that it does not require any pre-training- "tool" is always with you.

An alternative to pruning branches can be method of forming the crown "in a bend"- transfer of branches to fruiting. This procedure must be carried out until the end of June(before the formation of fruit buds).

For this improperly growing(at an acute angle to the trunk) branches deflected to a horizontal position and fix them.

The easiest way to do this is in two ways:

  • Secure with twine or ribbon;
  • Hanging the appropriate load.

Advice! There is no need to protect the cortex from stretching pressure. In the pinched area, the outflow of nutrients becomes more difficult and additional formation of fruit buds occurs. The banding method is based on this property to increase productivity.

Within about a month or two, the branches will “remember” their new location and the latches can be removed.

The formation of the crown "in the bend".

Columnar varieties

Rules for pruning columnar trees easier. Since they form few side branches, it is enough only control their growth pinching off the excess.

All shoots growing from the trunk perpendicular, necessary delete.

Particular attention should be paid to growth in June is a period accelerated growth tree.

Attention! In no case should you cut off the apical kidney. This will cause completely unnecessary branching and thickening of the column.

Pruning apple trees in summer for beginners

Pruning apple trees in the summer is meaningless if you consider it as a one-time campaign - "cut and forgot for a year."

The main task of pruning- cut so that after it was possible during the season do without trimming tools, only pinching(excluding cases of removal of diseased branches),

After trimming, do not rush to cover everything up garden pitch(or other mastic). small cuts up to a centimeter in diameter don't need it at all.

Generally speaking, cuts larger area- too, but it is very difficult to fight this opinion. At least do not apply immediately let the wood dry naturally for a few days.

About how the summer pruning of apple trees for beginners is carried out - the video below:

Important! A fresh cut smeared with garden mastic is a breeding ground for fungal diseases!

More information about you can get from this article.

Conclusion

Now that you know if you can prune an apple tree in summer, no need to be afraid to apply any innovation in your garden plot.

To get started, you can simply try the technique on one tree, which grows closest. It will remind of itself more often than others, catching the eye. Passing by, immediately pluck the excess.

young apple trees two-three year olds start shaping right away "in the bend". If you bend a branch in spring or until mid-summer, fruit buds form on it by autumn.

With this approach to shaping autumn pruning may not be needed at all..

Foreword

The Garden of Eden in the pictures of glossy magazines can also be grown on your site. To do this, you just need to learn how to properly care for trees and cut them. In this article, we will share the features of pruning trees in summer period time.

Trees are most often pruned in spring and autumn. But is it possible to do it in the summer? Here the opinions of garden experts are divided. Some say that it is possible and necessary and consider the summer period to be almost the best for. Others are sure that the summer shortening and thinning procedure is only suitable as an additional spring pruning.

Proponents of pruning trees in the summer argue that removing growths during this period does not slow down the growth of trees at all. On the contrary, trees show rapid growth of new shoots. Observations by individual gardeners show that if pruning is carried out during fruiting, the quality of the fruit is greatly improved. Trimmed in June, three-year-old and older trees, by August, almost completely grow growth.

An exception can only be young trees up to three years old. They are more demanding. In order for the shoots to be more powerful, it is necessary to remove some of the branches before the growth begins. This will give all the juice to the remaining branches. But the green shoots of young trees should not be cut, in which case part of the juice has already been used up at the beginning of the growth of branches. Therefore, the remaining shoots will not be strong.

A positive in the summer procedure for cutting branches is that the secreted juice in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe cut covers the wound of the branch with a film. This promotes rapid healing and protection from pests. Such a film is a real natural var.

To improve the quality of fruits, increase the fruitfulness of trees, and accelerate the formation of crowns, tweezing is very effective, or, as this operation is also called, pinching. In this case, on the desired shoots, which we plan to leave for further growth, it is cut off top part. The shoot starts up side branches, becomes denser and stronger.

Pinching is best done when the shoots have reached twenty centimeters. The procedure can be divided into weak and strong intervention. Weak is called tweezing when the top of the shoot with a pair of undeveloped leaves is removed. At the same time, the growth rate of the shoot slows down for fifteen days, and due to this, a redistribution of nutrients occurs. Weak shoots become stronger. All at once, the tops of the shoots should not be pinched. The remaining shoots that have not been tweezed will be able to pull on more nutritious juice. This will reduce the number of new shoots.

With strong tweezing (up to half of the shoot is removed), the side branches feed better. Below the cut, the kidneys awaken faster and in the best possible way are developing. Pinching contributes to a significant increase in the fertility of trees, compared with pruning alone in the spring-autumn period.

summer pruning fruit trees still should not be as intense as in the case of spring. It's about, first of all, about working with young branches. So, such a technique as pinching is widely used, that is, breaking out at the very beginning of the growth of green shoots. This technique is similar to thinning, only different early dates holding.

In order to avoid thickening of the crown, you can cut or break out extra shoots that are useless for the tree at the beginning of their development. There is no specific time frame for this operation - the sooner you remove unnecessary shoots, the less strength they will take. In addition, early removal of branches is less traumatic for the tree itself. Stepping should be done all the time - shoots will grow in the most unexpected places.

Thinning is especially necessary in the central part of the crown - this way you will increase air access to all branches and improve the illumination of the lower tiers.

In addition to removing and shortening branches, a novice gardener should also master such a technique as tilting branches. While they are young and not lignified, it will be quite easy to do this - the shoots can be tilted with the help of ropes and pegs driven into the ground, or with the help of spacers. The main thing is that in the end the branches should be as horizontal as possible relative to the ground. As practice shows, this increases the yield, significantly increases the strength of the branches and makes it easy to collect ripe fruits.

We recommend cutting thick branches of fruit trees using the following technology. It is necessary to start sawing off a thick branch from the bottom, by sawing to the middle of the branch. Then make a notch from the top side of the branch and continue sawing to the end. Thanks to this method, you can avoid breaking and breaking the bark. The latter is very traumatic for any tree.

Pruning of fruit trees can be divided into weak, medium and strong. Light pruning is best for young trees. Shortening occurs by one-fourth of the new branch. This speeds up fruiting. Thanks to this intervention, the crown will form beautifully; in the spring, new, fresh shoots will begin to grow intensively from shortened branches.

Medium pruning also increases yield, but, unlike light pruning, this method is applied to trees of five to seven years of age. Shorten one third of the branch. To reduce branching, enhance growth, thicken the bases of branches, a strong pruning method is used. In this case, one second part of the branch is shortened.

Apple trees, apricots and peaches are very common in our gardens, and therefore it will be easiest to explain the features of pruning using the example of these fruit trees. Let's start with an apple tree - at the stage of acquiring an annual seedling, the top is trimmed. It is necessary to leave about six buds on a one-year-old tree, approximately half a meter from the ground. Thanks to this, the buds will form side shoots the next year.

Leave about five well-developed skeletal branches on a two-year-old apple tree. Pay attention to the angle of departure of these branches from the trunk. Ideally, it should be fifty or sixty degrees - we wrote above how to get the right angle. If the upper branches bend under the weight of the fruit and shade the lower shoots, then shorten the branches of the upper tier so that the lower ones develop better. Still, it is much more convenient to harvest from the lower tier.

A pear is very similar in growth rate and crown shape to an apple tree. Therefore, the recommendations given for the apple tree are also suitable for the pear. Apricots and peaches are characterized by very strong growth - for big harvest should be carried out strong. By shortening the top of the tree, adjust its height. Ideally, you should harvest most of the crop from the ground, maximum from a stepladder. The higher the crown, the more difficult it is to pick fruit and take care of the garden. After pruning, in all cases do not fertilize, this can give a rapid growth of new shoots.

The beauty and fertility of trees growing in the garden directly depends on the correctness of their formation, growth activity and full development. Of course, if the branches of a plant are evenly distributed, do not break and withstand a rich harvest without supports, this is the merit of highly qualified gardeners. The conditions listed above take place only if the plant produces timely pruning. After all, only thanks to proper pruning, the tree is freed from dried, diseased, infertile and competing shoots. In this connection, it grows healthy, aesthetically beautiful and bears fruit well.

Pruning trees in summer (Ukraine) is relatively less common than in other seasons. The reason for this is very simple to explain. In summer, the leaves of all plants accumulate in themselves complex substances(such as glucose and others). And by cutting branches, we deprive the tree of these useful substances.

But still pruning of garden trees in summer is carried out in individual cases. This is necessary when the tree needs to slow down the process of its restoration. That is, to contribute to a slowdown in growth, in order to timely remove unnecessary branches growing inside. Branches that grow outside the tier, that is, in the wrong place, are also removed.

Also correct pruning trees in summer lets restore fruitful properties to the old garden the very next year. How to do it? After a strong anti-aging pruning, wen begin to grow actively on old trees - these are rapidly growing young branches. These wen during the summer we have to cut off on the 2nd kidney. From the cut off wen, 1 or 2 more branches will grow, which we will also cut off on the 2nd kidney and so on. Thus, we quickly grow a young fruit branch on an old plant.

Pruning fruit trees in the summer is quite a serious undertaking. And it must be produced by a person who understands the processes taking place in the tree. You can not cut any branches, there is a risk of removing healthy and fruiting ones. You need to know how sick and dried up look, and how to properly remove them. All these aspects are very important.

young seedlings

Pruning of young trees in summer should be done very carefully.. It is in the first years of life with the help of this procedure that the plant is artificially formed correct crown. If everything is done correctly, there is a guarantee that in the future the garden will bear fruit well. The fruits will be large, juicy and tasty.

If you are in doubt whether it is possible to prune trees in the summer or are not sure that you can do it correctly and without negative consequences for a plant - contact the specialists of our site. We will be happy to show you how all operations are performed correctly, answer all your questions and carry out pruning in such a way that the tree will delight you with its exceptional fruits for more than one year!

Trimming trees in summer video

Until I began to closely engage in the garden that my parents planted, I didn’t know anything about the need for summer pruning of fruit trees. I was even sure that trees are pruned only in early spring or late autumn. But it turns out that fruit trees need pruning almost the whole year. By the way, the formation of the crown is a creative process, so creative that once I got so carried away that some kind of slingshot turned out of my favorite apricot. So proper pruning is beautiful appearance garden, but not only ... The harvest also depends on this.

Of course, the main pruning operations are carried out in the garden in spring and autumn. And summer pruning of fruit trees is a “work” with green, non-lignified or young shoots that have just begun to be covered with thin bark. Its purpose: firstly, it is necessary to thin out the crown so that it becomes evenly lit and sufficiently ventilated, and, secondly, to provide access to each branch when spraying trees from pests and diseases.

In summer, mainly in June-early July, gardeners often use easy-to-perform tree pruning operations - pinching, tweezing, breaking, breaking, pruning. Let's consider each method separately.

Pinching

This technique allows you to suspend the growth of shoots of the current year. During summer pruning, we remove (pinch) the top of a green branch with three to five leaves. We usually do this when it is difficult to decide in the summer whether we will leave this branch in the fall-spring or not, whether it will be here or not. After pinching, the growth of the branch stops for 1.5-2 weeks. The process can be repeated when the growth processes are resumed. We pinch vertically growing shoots or branches growing deep into the crown.

It is difficult to accurately determine the timing of the summer pinching, they depend on the strength of growth, the age of the tree, and the conditions of detention. For example, in such fruit trees as peach, apricot, cherry plum, pinching is carried out in the first half of June (in early spring - at the end of May), when young shoots begin active growth.

What result should be expected from summer pinching? This is the growth of shoots from newly awakened buds, their timely ripening for winter.

tweezing

This pruning technique differs from pinching only in that we do not pinch off 3-5 leaves from the top of the branch, but on the contrary, leave 3-5 leaves on the bottom of the branch. On this branch, a new shoot begins to grow from the upper leaf axil, which we also pinch (cut off), leaving 2-3 leaves. We carry out such an operation on young branches that grow from large (uterine) branches.

What is achieved by summer tweezing? Achieved full-fledged formation of wood near the mother branch, which in turn accelerates, increases and improves fruit formation.

Vylyomka


Vertical grassy shoots on cherry plum thicken the crown of the tree

This is a very simple trick. Most often used on stone fruit trees. With its help, the best illumination of the crown is achieved, as grassy vertically growing shoots break out, which are of no value for the formation of the crown. By the way, the tree easily tolerates summer breaking, since the resulting wounds heal much faster than cuts that need to be processed after spring-autumn pruning.

Breakdown

A technique rarely used by gardeners, but it is very effective when you need to give the shoots, which then become branches, the desired direction of growth - down or horizontally. By the way, the more horizontally the branch grows, the more harvest it has, the better it ripens. Keep this in mind when giving the branch a certain direction when it breaks. To do this, press on the twig in the place of the fracture with a fingernail. thumb and flatten it, directing the lower part into the right direction. In the place of the fracture, a wound tissue is formed, which overgrows and fixes the shoot in the future.

By the way, you can break not only green shoots. For this operation, 2-3-year-old branches are suitable. If you notice that some branch is too long and it will be difficult to get fruits from it, you can direct its growth horizontally or down with a break. But here you can’t get by with a fingernail. You will have to carefully bend the branch so that the bark on the upper part of the branch bursts, and the central part only bends, slightly breaks. In the future, the fracture will overgrow, and the position of the branch will be fixed as it should. To be honest, I broke more than one branch before I got the desired result. Still, the reception of a fracture of lignified branches requires practical skills.

pruning

This summer pruning technique is somewhat similar to tweezing. Its purpose is that it allows you to get flower buds at the base of the shoots in the year of their growth.

The essence of the technique: we select branches on the tree that are not needed to form branches. It can even be vertically growing shoots. We cut them short almost to the base, but leaving two well-formed sheets. After 1.5-2 weeks, a new shoot sprouts from the upper bud on this stump with two leaves. We also cut it short. And a month later, a flower bud is formed in the axil of the leaf at the base of the shoot - this is the key to the future harvest.

The method of summer pruning - pruning - is interesting and quite effective, but in the case of a rainy summer it will not bring the expected result. Frequent rains will lead to the fact that when pruning, not only the upper, but also the second lower kidney will sprout. In this case flower bud may not form. That is, we will not reach the goal.

By the way, this (2015) year, due to the protracted warm autumn and sharp drops in air temperature to -20ºС, fruit buds on stone fruit trees (peach, apricot, cherry plum, plum) were badly damaged. In the spring, we got a lot of frozen dry branches, which had to be cut to living tissue. Then came heavy rains in April-May. This provoked the abundant growth of young shoots. If you do not carry out summer pruning of green or woody shoots, then by the end of summer we will get a too dense crown, which will be more difficult to thin out in autumn. In addition, such abundant growth of branches will further weaken our trees that have survived such a difficult winter.

It can last for weeks and months, each of the receptions summer pruning timed to a certain phase of tree development and must be carried out in a very short time.

You can not expect a positive effect from filisene, tweezing, green pruning or thinning of fruits carried out at the wrong time. Untimely summer pruning can give a negative result.

There is usually not enough time during the short period of summer pruning, as there is a lot of other work in the garden at this time, so it is not carried out to the proper extent. However, it is necessary to find the possibility of a wider application of at least the most effective methods of summer pruning.

Since winter pruning continues for a long time and is carried out at a time when there is enough free time, it is practically the main one.

But the importance of summer pruning is sometimes underestimated. Often the essentials are not carried out, which would make it possible to use its great advantages, at least in relation to young trees, where summer pruning techniques can be carried out quickly and with low cost labor.

With summer pruning, wounds heal faster. Using summer pruning techniques, they correct and supplement the winter pruning that precedes it, direct nutrients on the development of useful organs, timely removing unnecessary parts. If this is not done during the summer pruning, then the unnecessary parts should be removed at the next winter pruning. However, in this case, the useful parts will remain weak or underdeveloped.

Summer pruning is very important event, and for young trees characterized by strong bud germination and shoot productivity, it is even mandatory.

Both in the nursery and in the first years after planting the trees in the garden, such techniques as filizene, tweezing, bending, changing the angle of the branches and green pruning should be used, which ensure the formation of a crown from healthy, well-developed and well-placed skeletal branches and ramifications evenly covered with overgrown wood.

Summer pruning should be applied to all young trees, but it is especially effective for young and vigorous peach trees, to which it is applied until their growth becomes moderate and the number of excess and thickening branches decreases.

Summer pruning is also necessary when growing dwarf and shaped fruit trees. It contributes both to the formation of the crown and the covering of skeletal branches and ramifications with overgrown wood, and the formation of fruit twigs and buds and, ultimately, obtaining large yields of high-quality fruits.

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