- Why is a summer cut useful?
- How to perform a summer cut
- This remains to be done with a subsequent winter cut
It is generally advised to prune fruit trees in late winter. However, it can make sense - especially with young trees and those that have not developed many fruits due to senescence - to reach for secateurs in summer as well. Such a pruning promotes the development of fruit wood and thus also the development.
Summer pruning contributes to the formation of fruit wood
Why is a summer cut useful?
In addition to the fruit wood, numerous wood shoots develop along the annual branch extensions, i.e. the shoots that emerged in the previous year. They also need to be converted into short fruiting wood to create the desired loose crown shape. Especially young fruit trees in the training phase benefit from such a cut.
How to perform a summer cut
To do this, pinch off the young, still green wood shoots as soon as they are about 20 centimeters long. To do this, pinch back the tips of the shoots on about three to four well-developed leaves, although you should not remove them directly on the leaf. Instead, it is better to place the knife or scissors slightly above it. The tree reacts to this initial pruning with renewed strong growth of wood shoots: new shoots develop from the first one to three eyes of the pruned shoots. However, you should always only leave one, otherwise the fruit wood would be too dense. The excess shoots are cut away, and the remaining shoots are shortened to two leaves. You should also shorten wood shoots that emerge from perennial fruit wood during early summer.
Attention: only herbaceous, young shoots can be converted into fruit wood
When pruning, you should only select herbaceous, slightly woody shoots with a maximum length of 20 to 25 centimeters. Only these can be converted into fruit wood.
This remains to be done with a subsequent winter cut
If a summer pruning has been carried out, there is not much left to do in the coming winter. Leave the short fruit wood untouched. If, however, wood shoots have developed from the fruit wood, these are removed during the vegetation break, except for the bottom ones, which in turn are shortened to two eyes. If the fruit wood is too dense on older fruit trees, it is trimmed with scissors. Cut so that the remaining fruit wood gets enough light.
tips
Also, if you want to keep your fruit tree small, you should preferably prune it in summer. While winter pruning stimulates growth, trees pruned in summer increase in size and girth much more slowly.