What fruit plants need to be cut in the fall?

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Any garden is a small collection of fruit plants. Often, it is for the sake of their cultivation that we buy cottages, equip personal plots, and go out of town to live. Apple trees, pears, grapes, hazel, and somewhere persimmon, dogwood, figs delight us with their fruits, and in gratitude for this we care for them. Fruit trees and shrubs categorically cannot be ignored in the fall. After all, it is in the autumn months that you need to have time to conduct a series of events that will facilitate spring chores. And one of the most time-consuming techniques is cropping.

Content:

General rules for autumn pruning
Features of autumn pruning for popular fruit crops

General rules for autumn pruning

Autumn pruning has its own rules, which are very important to know. Thus, the middle strip and the more northern regions are characterized by cold winters, and therefore in these regions in late autumn, for most crops, only the removal of dried, diseased and mechanically damaged branches is acceptable.

But for the south are suitable and sanitary, and anti-aging, and forming scraps. Let's look at how they are performed, and on which fruit plants are recommended or acceptable in the autumn.

When to carry out autumn pruning?

Autumn pruning, like spring pruning, is carried out during the dormant period of plants. This moment comes when leaves fall from the trees. For these manipulations, choose a dry sunny day, with temperatures not lower than –5 ° C, and even better - before the jumps start from positive to negative temperatures.

Pruner shears, saws, delimbers should be sharpened well to less damage the wood, and disinfected. You must have a staircase at hand, as well as a garden var or garden paint.

Sanitary pruning

It can be used universally and is even preferable in autumn. It includes the removal of dry, sick, broken branches, as well as branches that do not bear fruit due to strong shading.

Forming Cut

Its purpose is to form a crown in such a way that it is sufficiently illuminated, as productive as possible and well ventilated. With the help of such pruning, the height and shape of trees and shrubs, their thickening are controlled, and they also stimulate the growth and development of lateral branches, and control the load of fruit formation.

Anti-aging pruning

It is used on adult trees and shrubs in order to stimulate the formation of new shoots that can replace old unproductive ones.

Autumn Trimming Technique

One-year shoots and thin branches must be cut at an angle. Thick branches - in a ring, without hemp. In order to form an even cut, everything that exceeds the thumb in diameter is initially filed from the bottom side, and then sawed from the top, while bending the branch in the direction of the first file.

If several very thick branches need to be removed on a tree, no more than two are cut at a time. Also, when rejuvenating pruning, they do not remove all the planned branches at once, but distribute the process for several seasons.

The diseased branch is cut to a healthy tissue with a capture of 2-4 cm.

Seedlings of one to two years of age in the fall are not pruned.

Features of autumn pruning for popular fruit crops

Gooseberry

Gooseberries are one of the few crops recommended specifically for autumn pruning. And all because the buds on the gooseberry wake up very early, when it is still difficult to enter the garden due to the slush caused by the spring thaw.

In addition to sanitary pruning, in the autumn gooseberry bushes immediately form and rejuvenate. Remove shoots directed deep into the crown, interwoven with each other, adjacent to the ground. Old branches are cut off, older than 5 years. They make sure that the bush consists of branches of different ages, since only shoots of 3-6 years old are actively fruiting.

If a black center is observed on a section of gooseberry twigs - this is a sign of damage to the plant with currant glass. Such shoots are cut off near the ground and burned.

Red and white currants

For red and white currants due to early flowering, as well as for gooseberries, the most suitable pruning time is autumn. At the end of the leaf fall, the bushes are inspected, branches older than 8 years are removed, thereby rejuvenating the plants, and those branches whose growth is less than 15 cm.If there is a black center on the branch cut, a sign of defeat by the currant glass, the shoots are cut off at the base and burned.

Black currant

In autumn, on blackcurrant, sick, broken, shoots adjacent to the ground, shoots directed inside the bush are removed. Twigs older than 3 years are cut. Thinning is performed. After pruning, the crown of blackcurrant should include 9-12 shoots, some of which are annuals, and some are zero. This approach allows you to slow down the aging of the bush and extend its productivity.

Raspberry

If raspberries have not been pruned before, shoots are removed on it in the autumn, fruiting this year, affected by the raspberry stem fly, raspberry stem gall midge, raspberry bud moth, broken for some reason and poorly developed. Thinning bushes is carried out, leaving 4-7 shoots.

In some cases, the aerial part of the repairing varieties is completely cut, thereby strengthening their next crop.

Actinidia

Trimming actinidia begins not earlier than the plant drops all the foliage. This usually happens when steady negative temperatures occur. First, dried, diseased, broken, or sagging branches are removed, shortening them to the 2nd living kidney. Then, to rejuvenate the bush, 1–2 and 3-year-old branches are cut. And finally, all growth shoots are shortened by 50 cm, mixed ones by 30 cm. These are general rules. However, actinidia - the culture is ambiguous, when trimming it is necessary to focus on the appearance of this plant.

So, actinidia argument (acute actinidia) increases productivity with a well-thinned crown and regular shortening of shoots. For actinidia colomicta shortening of shoots is recommended only when the plant reaches 7-10 years, while old vines are best replaced by young ones. And here actinidia paligamma (acute) does not tolerate pruning of fruit twigs, reacting to such pruning with a sharp decrease in yield.

Grape

Autumn pruning of grapes is practiced in areas of shelter cultivation immediately before shelter for the winter. To do this, first they carry out sanitary pruning, and then they cut the vine according to the selected principle (with a supply of buds in case of frostbite of shoots, and in the spring they carry out the final pruning).

More often this is the principle of forming knots of substitution for 3-5 kidneys and fruit arrows for 8-10 kidneys, as well as the removal of extreme vertical shoots.

Edible honeysuckle

Edible honeysuckle is pruned every few years. Shorten the length of the shoots. Remove shoots interwoven with each other. Thin out. Cut everything that is directed to the ground, which interferes with neighboring cultures. Branches older than 7 years are cut into a stump of 5 cm. After such pruning, the honeysuckle bush should be 6-8 full branches.

Blackberry

In the fall, in addition to sanitary pruning, the blackberry also needs to be formed in the bush, and all because it bears fruit on two-year-old shoots. Thus, so that the bush does not thicken with unproductive lashes after fruiting, they are removed. In addition, all the weak and poorly developed are cut out, leaving only 8-10 full-fledged shoots on the bushes. And at the end of pruning, all ripened lashes are shortened by about ¼ to stimulate the formation of reproductive shoots.

Schisandra chinensis

Schisandra chinensis needs autumn pruning. After leaf fall, weak, dried shoots are removed from it. Thinning the bush. Cut the vine bearing fruit for more than three years. The height of the plant is formed, but mixed branches are shortened by no more than 30 cm.

Hazel, hazelnut

For hazel and hazelnuts, not only the annual sanitary, but also thinning pruning is important. Bushes tend to overgrow, so they are removed and dry, and broken, and thickening branches.

These cultures are centenarians. Able to bear fruit for more than 80 years. Therefore, plants that have crossed the age of 20 years, must gradually rejuvenate. To this end, 1-2 old branches are cut every year, making room for young people.

Apple tree

Spring is considered the best time for pruning an apple tree, however, if there may not be enough time for spring work, autumn pruning of crops, especially frost-resistant varieties, is allowed in the south and in the middle lane.

Autumn pruning of apple trees begins only after foliage flies from the trees, and it is recommended to complete this process before the temperatures are below -5 ° C, since with the advent of frost the wood of apple trees becomes brittle, brittle and loses its ability to quickly drag out.

First of all, dry branches, affected by diseases, broken, interwoven and growing inside the crown, are removed from the trees. Tops, branches growing below the first tier of skeletal branches, branches growing at an acute angle (less than 45 °), previously unnoticed competing shoots, are cut into rings. Still, the rest (anti-aging pruning, techniques that stimulate the formation of plaques and branching) are postponed until spring.

Pear

Autumn pruning of a pear is primarily sanitary. At the same time, early varieties must be cut off at the end of August-September, and later ones can be postponed to later dates, but no later than the temperature starts to “jump” from plus to minus. At low temperatures, pear wood is less prone to pruning, slices are poorly tightened, as a result of which infection can begin to develop.

On adult plants, dried, broken branches, shoots with signs of defeat by dangerous diseases (cancer) are removed. The growth is formed, formed at a right angle from the trunk and non-bearing powerful tops. If there is a need to remove a large old branch, the pruning procedure is divided into several stages, stretching it for several seasons, since if you remove everything at once, this will weaken the plant before wintering.

In autumn, they carry out pear and anti-aging pruning. The crown is underestimated by one third, skeletal branches are thinned out. As a result of pruning, 5-8 main branches located in two tiers should remain on the tree.

For sweet cherry, plum, apricot, peach, cherry plum, sea buckthorn, quince in autumn, only sanitary pruning is recommended.