Plum, like any fruit crop,needs the formation of the crown. Kroning - art is akin to architecture. From the gardener requires a developed spatial thinking, as well as knowledge of plant physiology.
Before approaching a tree with a pruner,You need to understand the meaning and purpose of your actions welland know the technical trimming techniques.
.Table of contents
- Types and methods of forming the right crown
- At what time can you prune the plum in the spring and fall, the timing
- To saw or not saw branches in the autumn?
- How to trim in other seasons: in summer and in winter
- Trimming Techniques and Schemes
- After-planting of young plum
- Forming from 3 years of age
- To rejuvenate the old tree
Types and methods of forming the right crown
Plum, especially young, - the plant is extremely fast-growing. For one spring-summer season, it is able to drive out so many shoots that "raspolhmatitsya" beyond recognition.
This is not good not only from an aesthetic point of view. On the well-groomed crown, the fruits grow smaller, ripen longer, are more often affected by mollusc and fruit moth. The cold resistance of the plant is reduced.
That is whyPlum seedling must be brought up, starting with planting.
Depending on the purpose, pruning fruit trees is of five types:
- Forming. The goal is to design the plant crown.
- Regulatory. The goal is to maintain a satisfactory state.
- Anti-Aging. The goal is to restore the fruiting of the old tree.
- Restorative. The goal is to eliminate dry and broken branches.
- Sanitary. The goal is the elimination of sick and pest-affected shoots.
Regardless of the purpose, usually when pruning plums, three techniques are used:
- Cut "on the ring". This method completely removes the unnecessary branch. At the same time, it is not cut level with the trunk, but along the boundary of the annular thickening in the place where the shoot is attached.
- Cut "on the kidney". It is used when it is necessary to shorten the escape and to set the direction of its growth. A good living kidney is selected in the right position, and the extra part is removed with a pruner. It is important to do this strictly at an angle of 45⁰ so that the top edge of the cut is aligned with the tip of the kidney.
- Transfer to a side shoot. This is a method for dramatically changing the direction of growth and rejecting unproductive branches. For this, the most promising of the side shoots is selected and a cut is made 2-3 mm above the place of attachment ("rings").
For successful work you need the right set of tools. In the mandatory list: secateurs, delimbants, two garden hacksaws (large and small), a good garden knife, a stepladder and garden var.
Formation of the crown of the plum:
At what time can you prune the plum in the spring and fall, the timing
Having dealt with the theoretical foundations of kroning, you canchoose the right time for pruning plums.
Most often these procedures are carried outin spring and autumn. From the age and condition of the tree will depend on the specific type of work and some nuances.
| Spring | |
| The ideal time for active interaction with trees is the beginning of spring. During this period, plants are easier to tolerate "surgical interventions and receive an incentive to lay flower buds. The exact timing of spring pruning depends on the region. You need to focus on the weather and the development of the kidneys. The best moment when frosts have already receded, but the kidneys have not started to swell yet. | |
| Types of jobs | Young plum | Old plum |
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| Autumn | |
| Autumn pruning plums are done in September or early October, depending on the region. The exact time is determined by your own tree: once the plum has discarded the leaves, you can work with it. | |
| Types of jobs | Young plum | Old plum |
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You can not make sanitary and other types of circumcision with the same instrument. After removal of diseased branches it is necessaryrinse with a solution of fungicide or alcohol. Then wipe thoroughly with a clean cloth.
.To saw or not saw branches in the autumn?
Among gardeners, there is no consensus on the expediency of autumn manipulation with a hacksaw. On the forums you can find, for example,such reviews:
"My grandfather before the winter cut off all the trees in the garden, except for the plum. As I understand it, pruning a plum in the fall increases the likelihood of its freezing. "
"If there are severe frosts in winter, the circumcised plant can get frostbite and necrosis of this area."
Really,In autumn it is necessary to intervene very carefully in the life of a tree. Autumn slits and cuts heal badly. This is due to the physiology of the plant.
Healing of wounds at the tree is due to the growth of cambium. Cambial cells actively divide, forming a wound around the wound - callus. The growth of the cambium occurs in the spring-summer period, and in the autumn it gradually stops.
If you do not guess the time andcut the plum late, at times the risk of infection increasesand drying of the wound surface. The plant leaves in the winter weakened and badly tolerates frosts.
Therefore, if some procedure can be postponed until the spring, it is better to leave your plum alone. Mandatory manipulation is only the sanitary pruning of the diseased tree and the elimination of broken branches.
..How to trim in other seasons: in summer and in winter
Some fruit crops in the summer are better than once again do not touch the pruner.Plum, on the contrary, is favorable to summer pruning. "Cut" is better to plan for June.
You can do this at this time:
- remove unnoticed spring frost shoots;
- remove the fattening shoots (the so-called "tops"), which likes to expel the plum.
We bring to your attention the following publications:
- Effective control of aphids on plums and other fruit trees.
- Why does not the blossom bloom and does not bear fruit and what to do about it?
- When and how correctly to collect a plum from a tree?
Thus, two goals are achieved: the spread of the disease in the garden stops, and the need for extensive sanitary trimming in the fall decreases.
In recent years, in garden practice,winter pruning plums. It is more correct, of course, to call it winter-spring, because they carry out this procedure towards the end of February or at the very beginning of March.
Distribution of winter pruning is received due to the general instability of the climate, on which a plum tree can react with an early awakening.
In winter spend all the usual spring types of cutting works. This period has its own advantage: while the cambium does not move into growth, the bark densely adjoins to the wood, and one can not be afraid of bending it and tearing it.
Winter prune plums are carried out only in regions with mild winters. Do not injure the tree if there is a risk of returning to stable frosts.
Spring pruning of plums and cherry plums:
Trimming Techniques and Schemes
To corrify the sink correctly,You need to imagine how a well-kept plum tree looks like.. If the variety is not coloniform, then it will be a neat tree, with one central conductor and 4-5 skeletal branches located in tiers.
The diameters of the tiers decrease - the lower ones are larger than the upper ones. Skeletal branches do not depart from the trunk at an acute angle. Crohn is not thickened, shoots grow on the outside, not inside.
Having built a "project" for the future tree in your mind, you can begin to form it.
After-planting of young plum
Annual plum "babies" are not yet branching, so the education of his tree is better to begin with this age. You just need to determine the growth of the future plum and trim the stem at the correct height.
To obtain a compact tree it will be enough to leave 1 meter above the ground.
Two-year-olds already have side shoots. You need to inspect the seedling, check if the center conductor is cut off. If not, it is shortened to the optimal height.
Then of the remaining lateral increments choose the most developed. They are shortened by 25-30 cm from the trunk.These are the skeletal branches, the future skeleton of the crown. The cut is made on the lower bud, so that the branch develops not upwards, but sideways.
Forming from 3 years of age
On a three-year-old tree, skeletal shootsalready well branch. Work with them should be like this:
- Cut the apical increments to a length of 30 cm.
- Lateral - up to a length of 15 cm.
All sections are again made on the lower kidney. The goal is to set the direction of shoot growth outward. In this case, the crown will be light, not thickened, each branch will receive a sufficient amount of sunlight.
This form is one of the most convenient. Care for the tree, formed in this way, is simple. In the future, he will need only regulatory pruning. This type of work should be done annually so that the tree does not overgrow.
If you care for the formed plum permanently, you will have to use the saw only in emergency cases. Basically, it will be possible to dispense with simple minting of a secateurs.
Any slice is an open wound on the body of a tree. It must be sealed with a garden fume. It will protect the plant from drying out, infection and gum.
Pruning of a young plum:
To rejuvenate the old tree
Most plums produce a harvest of about 15-20 years. Extend fruiting, rejuvenate the plum, if in time to do a rejuvenating pruning of the tree.
This is done from the top down by such a scheme:
- Crown height is reduced. To do this, the upper skeletal branches are cut to the desired length and transferred to good lateral shoots that grow outward. In a particularly neglected case, you can cut the uppermost skeletal branch "on the ring" in order to unload the center and lighten the crown.
- Removal of thickening shoots. This is all directed to the center of the crown, or woven with each other. At the same time dry, weak and spoiled branches are removed.
- Removal of hanging shoots, coming from the stem or branches of the lower tier.
- Shortening of skeletal branches, translation of growth on good lateral shoots directed outward.
- Removing unnecessary "tops".
Plum very hard heals wounds more than 5 cm in diameter. Therefore, do not make several large cuts at a time. It is better to break the rejuvenating procedure into several "sessions" at intervals of a year.
As a bonus, he will receive not only worthy harvests and a healthy garden, but also an additional place on the site.Well maintained plum occupies a lot less area, than growing without supervision, and brings aesthetic pleasure.
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