In many a garden there is still an old, seldom pruned fruit tree that shows hardly any new shoots and whose fruits remain too small. Here the crown is often far too dense and hardly a ray of light reaches the interior. In such a case, only a vigorous rejuvenation cut will help, in which the crown is first thinned out and finally cut back by a third.

In the case of a rejuvenation cut, for example, the crown is thinned out

Thin out old fruit tree crown - work steps

First, lighten the crown vigorously, working from top to bottom. Remove

  • all branches that are too close together directly at the attachment points
  • weak or cancerous branches
  • Branches lying too close to others

Old fruit trees also often have a dense tangle of shoots on the outer parts. Replace old branches with a lot of whorl wood on young shoots. These have mostly formed on the tops of the branches. If the crown is too high and difficult to reach, set it down on lower branches. All this pruning can be done as early as November, right after the leaves fall. After pruning, the crown should have a blunt, pyramidal shape - similar to a house gable.

Do not cut back severely neglected crowns all at once

It is best, however, not to cut back old trees so much all at once: Otherwise, strong new shoots can develop on the remaining branches, the so-called water shoots. It is therefore better to cut the trees in two to three consecutive weeks and thus prevent the strong development of these annoying shoots.

Rejuvenate fruit tree - further steps

In the case of severe balding, it is of course not enough to just thin out the crown. In addition, you still need to do these works:

  • First thin out the crown as described.
  • Now pull back all strong branches by one to three meters.
  • Take the main branches back to lower side branches.
  • Always start from the weakest key branch.
  • Now cut back all side wood to 50 centimeters.

After pruning, the tree should be fertilized vigorously.

cutting measures in the following years

Hopefully the pruned tree will sprout vigorously in the next few years. Now you have to thin it out regularly and remove new shoots that are too dense - water shoots should only be removed in spring or summer if possible.

tips

Apples, pears, sour cherries and peaches in particular respond very well to regeneration and form strong new shoots. Sweet cherries and other types of stone fruit, on the other hand, sometimes react with gummy flow. To avoid this, it is best to carry out the rejuvenation pruning in the summer immediately after harvest.

Category:

Trees