The apricot is a very vigorous tree. Due to this feature, the growth of the crown is very fast, which can adversely affect the condition of the entire plant as a whole. Often, due to the rapid growth of shoots, the apricot tree is exposed to various diseasesmay even dry up and die. To avoid such consequences, it is necessary to regularly prune your pet in the fall.
Purpose of pruning apricot
Before considering this process, you need to determine why apricot needs such a procedure at all. The reasons may be as follows:
- Formation of a beautiful crown... In this case, circumcision is necessary for the aesthetic beauty of the apricot: removal of protruding and too long shoots, the formation of the desired shape of the tree crown.
- Shoots rejuvenation... Intense fruiting and an overly dense crown of the plant lead to aging and death of internal shoots.
- With no circumcision fruits shrink, and their number is significantly reduced.
- Also without this procedure branches under the weight of the fruit will break... It is necessary to regulate the amount of ovary on the shoots.
- The growth and development of young twigs is reduced, subsequently finally stops. The apricot “grows old”, and, as a result, the fruits lose their varietal qualities, yielding in size and taste.
- Frosting shoots... If the tree grows in mid-latitudes, it is inevitably exposed to severe frosts. In this case, all affected or dried branches must be removed for sanitary purposes.
Thus, in order to form a neat and beautiful crown for your pet and ensure regular and abundant fruiting, as well as extend the life of the fruit tree, systematically you need to cut off its shoots.
When to prune a tree
If we talk about the right time to prune an apricot tree, it should be noted that it is necessary to carry out a complex procedure... This means that you need to cut the apricot in the fall, summer and spring.
Sap flow regardless of the time of the procedure should be stopped, that is, pruning is carried out either before it starts in early spring, or at the end of it in late autumn.
It is recommended to start the process of cutting branches in the first year. In the spring, they begin to form a crown, in order to subsequently stimulate abundant fruiting and improve the quality characteristics of the fruit.
In autumn, the plant is pruned for sanitary purposes... This removes all diseased, damaged and dry shoots to heal the whole tree.
Pruning branches in summer to stimulate the formation of young shoots... This procedure is carried out to rejuvenate the apricot with a frequency of once every two or three years.
How to properly prune an apricot in autumn
In the autumn, the apricot must be pruned to remove damaged and non-viable branches. In this way, they prepare the plant for the upcoming wintering and help to gain strength for the next season. Also an important result of cutting off weak branches will be the formation of young shoots... Often, it is on them that most of the fruits of the apricot tree are formed.
Autumn pruning is recommended in late autumn, not earlier than mid-October.
Also a distinctive feature of this fruit tree is that excess ovary is not thrown off by the plant... This leads to breaking off of branches and plant disease.
Therefore, in the fall it is necessary to carry out not only sanitary, but also regulating and rejuvenating pruning.
In autumn, only medium and early-ripening apricot varieties are cut.
Instrument preparation
To care for an apricot tree, you need the following tools:
- secateurs;
- garden grafting knife;
- garden saw;
- sharpening bar;
- twine to support shoots and branches;
- means for closing cuts and wounds (for example, garden pitch).
First, everyone garden tools must be sharpened carefully... A garden knife is sharpened against a wet block in order to remove iron filings. A new pruner, or a dull one, must be disassembled and its blade sharpened. Then check the tool. The secateurs can be adjusted by controlling the tension of the nut: if the grip is too tight, it is loosened, if free - tightened.
Before starting work for a garden saw, you need to spread the teeth in opposite directions, alternating their tilt to the right and left. The bending angle of the teeth is kept the same, with the sharp side all the teeth must be directed inward.
Immediately before the procedure, the entire instrument is disinfected in order to protect the plant from diseases and pests.
Cutting scheme and technology
In autumn formative pruning of apricot carry out so that the plant in the next season supplies the fruit-bearing shoots with nutrients evenly. That is why this type of pruning is practiced from a young age of trees.
In order to form the crown, pruning is carried out in a discharged-tiered way. For this, 6-7 main strong shoots are left, located 30-40 cm from each other.
Such pruning is carried out in the following way:
- In the first year of life, the trees form a crown.cutting the whip by a quarter. Two main shoots are left on a young plant, providing a distance of about 30 cm between them, the remaining branches are removed. The remaining branches are cut to a length less than the length of the whip by 20-30 cm.
- The next year, two young branches are pruned in the same way., leaving a distance of up to 40 cm between them.
- In the following years, they carry out the same procedure., increasing the gap by 10 cm.
- Branches on the central shoot cut in half if they exceed 60 cm in length... The short ones are left unchanged.
- If short and weak branches have grown on an apricot tree, but they will be able to bear fruit in the future, it is recommended to pinch them until they are strong enough to support the weight of the fruit.
Regulatory pruning helps preserve the crown and yield of the apricot. In this case, shoots are removed with the growth direction inside the crown to ensure a sufficient level of illumination of all parts of the plant.
In an adult plant, the growth of new shoots is often suspended. In order to rejuvenate a mature plant, it is pruned in autumn.:
- After a careful inspection of the plant, select several non-fruiting branches. Them sawn off with a garden saw at an angle of 45 degrees.
- Several of the strongest shoots, relatively young, are identified. It is necessary remove branches growing on them, all or a few large ones.
Old branches should be cut off with each fall pruning gradually over several years, without waiting for the death of the plant.
How to care for a tree after pruning
After pruning, the apricot needs attention. After the procedure, the following care steps must be taken:
- Close up all sections garden pitch.
- To disinfect large wounds, use copper sulfate solution.
- For subsequent adaptation and restoration of apricot, phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers are applied.
Pruning an apricot tree correctly can seem like a time consuming process, especially for novice gardeners. But this essential requirement for plant health and ensuring the required quantity and quality of the fruit.