stubborn cherry trees

[takeadoe]

Greetings,

I've got some very stubborn cherry trees. They refuese to do anything but grow. The trees are probably 6-8 years old (dwarfs supposedly) and have yet to produce cherry number 1! Their main stems are as big around as the fat end of a baseball bat and 12-14' tall. They have grown faster than I can prune them, and I think that may be some of the problem. I've heard that if you prune in late winter, you end up with a big burst of vegetative growth (lots of water sprouts and the like). I've always pruned them in late winter before they break dormancy. And yes, they grow to beat the band. I did the same thing this year and then I got to looking around and stumbled onto some of the pruning literature. It said that late spring early summer, before the buds are set, is the best time to prune to avoid the big slug of growth and to encourage fruit bud production. Is there any truth to this? What am I doing wrong? Help would certainly be appreciated.

Regards,

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Yes, repeated prunning and the removal of to many terminal buds will cause the tree to grow fast. There is a hormone (auxin) in the terminal bud that inhibits growth downstem. Now most of last years stored energy is going into new shoots. The trees programing "thinks" it si being eaten/broken repeatedly and needs to grow.

Also most of the fruiting is on young one year + wood, so you are removing flowers too.

Wait till around now next year and prune to thin and correct the past errors. try to stay around 5-10% of leaf mass in your removal. or just limbs that are poor in structue. That is if it is needed.