Pruning Fruit Trees

Cherry

• Scientific Name

  Prunus avium
• Special Considerations

  

  Photo: Kristjan Kotar/Unsplash

  Generally, cherries are the most difficult fruit trees to keep alive. They do not tolerate wet feet and are very susceptible to brown rot, bacterial canker, root and crown rots, and eutypa, a water-borne fungal disease. As a result, cherries should be pruned only when rains are unlikely over the ensuing six weeks. Increasingly, professional pruners are recommending that cherry trees be pruned no later than August.

  Cherry trees benefit greatly from careful structural pruning during the first three to five years after planting to create an open center and proper spacing between scaffold branches. If a proper structure exists, little pruning is required thereafter.

  Avoid heading cuts on cherries, as they can respond with a flush of reactive growth at the point of the cut.

  Avoid removing any branches more than two or three inches in diameter on established trees, as they can become disease portals.

• Fruit grows on:

  Old wood – from flower buds near the base of one-year old wood and from spurs on older wood. Spurs are productive for three to five years.

  

  UC Master Gardeners Handbook

• What to Prune in Winter

  Never prune cherry trees in winter in Marin. They do not tolerate wet feet and are very susceptible to brown rot, bacterial canker, root and crown rots, and eutypa, a water-borne fungal disease. As a result, cherries should be pruned only when rains are unlikely over the ensuing six weeks. Prune cherry trees in summer only; ideally, no later than August.

• What to Prune in Summer

  Remove dead, diseased, or damaged branches.

  Remove crossing branches.

  Sweet Cherries:
  • Sparingly, use thinning and releadering cuts to remove any branches that grow in a manner that crowds the interior or the distancing between scaffold branches.
  • Use thinning cuts to remove any branches with narrow angles of attachment.
  • Aim for even branch spacing throughout the tree.

  Sour Cherries:
  • Follow the same guideline as for sweet cherries, but pay particular attention to the tangle of branches that typically forms near the top of the tree.
  • Also, while fruit forms on one year-old wood and older spurs, it forms predominantly on one year-old wood.
  • Aim for even branch spacing throughout the tree, but especially at the top.