Why do you need pruning apricot, its types and terms

Before apricot gives the first crop, you will have to work hard. One of the obligatory agrotechnical methods for crown formation is pruning of apricot. It is not enough to buy a tool, you need to understand the meaning of the operation, and learn how to carry it out correctly, distinguishing between pinching, pinching, chasing. It is important to make the right cut of the fruit branch. Scruffy, not on time pruning can destroy the fruit tree.

Types of pruning seedlings and fruit trees

Looking at the fruitful apricots, you can see that there are trees of various shapes, but they all have sparse crown, formed by special methods of apricot pruning.

A tree receives several types of pruning for the season:

• forming;
• regulatory;
• recovery;
• sanitary;
• anti-aging.

Formative pruning is required for the one-year-old to start branching, forming branches of the first tier.

In the diagram, the apricot-free crown formation. Formation lasts 4 years, before the onset of fruiting.

Another form of formation. In the first spring, on the grown seedling, 2 branches are left, the central trunk is shortened by 30 cm, and the branches between the left branches of the first tier are pressed to the trunk, pointing down. All branches are shortened. In May, the excess shoots are removed by pinching, and during the summer they keep the shape of the lower tier by stamping and pinching. The following year, the second tier is also formed from the upper branches with apricot pruning. The third tier is created from the fifth branch, and the tree acquires a compact neat shape.

All branches are shortened annually, leaving a rare crown. A tree is pruned. The intake stimulates the growth of the vegetative mass and accelerates fruiting. The scheme of pruning a young apricot in the spring is shown in the picture:

In the future, all types of pruning prevent the overgrowth of the crown and form a tree for better sun lighting.

Apricots tie fruit buds 30 cm from the top of young twigs. The fruiting branch lasts 2 years. In the future, it does not yield, you need to form new fruit sprigs.

Regulatory pruning allows you to save the crop. But the apricot ties all the fruits, no matter how many flowers. Therefore, the regulation of the crop by removing excess fruit branches does not allow the tree to be weakened.

Rejuvenating pruning of apricots is required to stimulate the emergence of new shoots, which yield a crop. Reception allows you to return the second youth to the old tree.

Pruning of an old tree is made according to the scheme:

• clean ligneous branches over 5 years old;
• to shorten the stem shoot, creating conditions for the growth of young shoots;
• part of the old branches must be left until the wounds from the first cardinal pruning heal.

When rejuvenating pruning, old wood should be removed gradually. If the operation is performed at once, the tree will not recover, it will die.

So, regardless of what is called pruning, it is aimed at increasing the viability and fertility of the tree. Therefore, it is important to carry out any pruning, guided by the rules:

• to injure the tree as little as possible, closing each cut with a garden pitch;
• use summer apricot pruning, removal of thin shoots, chasing, pinching, in order to cause as little as possible traumatic sections of the lignified branch;
• can not be pruned in early spring, but you need to have time to sap flow;
• autumn pruning is done only for early and medium varieties;
• know the techniques for correct pruning and owning garden tools;
• must take into account the budding of the kidneys, the apopot's sparing ability.

Before you start forming a tree, take a good look at the training course pruning apricot in spring - video for beginners:

Spring pruning, it is time to spring work. All that concerns the formation of young and fruiting apricots must be done before the appearance of the green cone. At the same time, they carry out sanitary and anti-aging pruning. During surgery, all sections are carried out on the kidney. It is important to make the correct slope, direction of cut and the distance to the kidney.

The correct cut is essential for quick wound healing. It is necessary to have a sharp instrument, to train and to fill the hand on the bars of non-fruit trees. At the same time, you can sanitize the crown and remove the extra branches growing inward, directed towards the trunk of the tree.

Summer pruning

Apricot summer care includes early and late summer pruning Early is differently called chasing. Early pruning, carried out in early June. It contributes to the rapid growth of greenery. On the newly formed shoots have time to form fruit buds - next year's harvest. The result will be a surge in yield over the next 3 years. If late summer pruning is used, foliage does not grow, and a fruit bud is formed. At the same time, summer sections heal quickly, without subsequent gum treatment.

If the tree is sick or hungry, pruning will not increase the harvest, but will weaken the tree completely.

Autumn pruning

Apricot pruning in autumn is carried out in mid-October, in cool weather, when the tree is preparing for rest. In the fall, early and middle apricot varieties can be cut. They carry out all kinds of pruning - form, rejuvenate, remove the excess load from the tree. Pinch on the 12 sheets of the main branch. Long branches cut 50 cm, but the cut must be perfectly smooth. Open wounds treated with garden pitch.

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In conclusion, I would like to say that the best agricultural practices can be useless if you don’t learn apricot. If the gain is weak, and pruning should be gentle. But it is important to establish why the tree develops slowly, examine the soil, and make sure that the ground waters do not harm. Care for each plant are, given its characteristics.

Video about apricot pruning immediately after flowering