What is tree pruning in winter and how is it done?

What is it for

Pruning the branches of fruit trees and bushes in the garden in winter is carried out to form a full-fledged and healthy plant, which will bear fruit much better in the warm period. In the absence of operations that regulate the size of the tree, its growth will increase while decreasing its fruitfulness. As a result, the volume of the harvest drops sharply, and its quality is poor. Winter pruning allows you to optimally regulate and correlate the growth and fruiting of plants.

A scheme for pruning fruit trees in winter can be carried out for the following purposes:

• forming crown pruning. It is carried out for seedlings in the first 2-4 years and allows you to effectively form the correct crown, increasing productivity. Especially relevant for stone fruit trees. This pruning creates a strong skeleton of strong branches that are evenly spaced with semi-skeletal shoots. Thus, the crown turns out to be well lit and blown by the winds, which speeds up the fruiting time of seedlings;
• regulating pruning. Experienced gardeners know the approximate frequency of the yield of fruit crops planted in their garden. An annual winter pruning will allow you to get a great harvest from your trees every year. This aspect is relevant for novice gardeners who do not yet know all the intricacies of gardening;
• pruning for rejuvenation. This pruning is only applicable to mature trees. In the course of it, old branches should be shortened, while leaving young shoots intact. Rejuvenating pruning should be done once every 3-4 years, unlike other pruning options;
• restorative and sanitary pruning. In the course of it, sick, dead, broken and diseased branches are removed.

It must be remembered that reconciliation according to the lunar calendar will allow you to get a better result. The above manipulations, carried out a few days before the full moon, will affect the faster growth of new shoots.The existing types of pruning carried out in winter can be combined with each other to get the best result from your efforts.

Visible benefits

Pruning a garden in winter has its advantages. And they are even more noticeable. This is because trees and shrubs are dormant in winter. Therefore, pruning carried out with minor violations (this is especially typical for novice gardeners) will not bring an obvious negative and will not destroy the plants. Pruning in winter will not stress trees and shrubs as much as it does in spring or fall.

Another advantage of pruning in winter is the absence of leaves on the branches. This allows you to better select the branches that need to be deleted. As a result, the crown will be clearly visible, which will make it possible to thin it out well and prepare the tree for spring time. In winter, it is much easier to decide on the type of pruning, which is more necessary in this particular period of time.

In addition, winter pruning has other advantages:

• branches are much easier to cut;
• the likelihood of the appearance of "scuffs" on the wood is practically minimal;
• the ladder can be placed on either side of the crown without fear of damaging neighboring plants;
• you can not rush to pruning. This is due to the fact that in winter the plants are at rest and there is enough time to be in time before the spring sap flow.

As you can see, carrying out winter pruning has a number of noticeable advantages over similar operations carried out in spring or autumn.

Video "How to properly care for fruit trees"

Pruning fruit trees

The pruning scheme, which is carried out for fruit trees, is not complicated and includes the following points:

• first, seed-bearing tree species should be processed, then the turn of stone fruit comes;
• we start pruning with young seedlings to form a crown;
• the ideal height for garden trees should be three meters. In this case, the spread of the crown should be the same. This will allow harvesting without ladders, since fruiting will go on the lower branches;
• rejuvenation is carried out only for those trees that are more than ten years old.

Moreover, each type of trimming has its own scheme. To rejuvenate plants, it will be as follows:

• every two years, frame branches are shortened by 1-2 meters. But about this stage, many experts are ambiguous about the correctness and effectiveness of this approach. Therefore, this step is often skipped;
• on the south side of the crown, half of the main branches should be immediately cut to a length of 2.5-3 meters;
• the sprouts that appear must be shortened and thinned out;
• two years later, these manipulations are carried out from the north side.

As a result of such pruning, fruiting becomes stable and early, and the frost resistance of plants also increases.

For young seedlings, it is recommended to cut branches that branch off at an angle of less than 45 degrees. This is especially true for those shoots that have cracks between the main branch and the trunk. Otherwise, such shoots may be scrapped in the future.

For trees, winter pruning takes place from January to March. Pruning at this particular time stimulates the growth of fruit crops most intensively. In this case, it is imperative to be guided by the indicators of the thermometer. The optimum air temperature for high-quality and efficient pruning should be at least 7 degrees.

If you properly prune trees in the garden, they will have convenient dimensions, and harvesting will become a comfortable procedure. If there is a tree that is three meters in height and the same in width (for some species, this parameter can be in the range from 2.5 to 3 meters), you do not even need a ladder to completely harvest the entire crop from the plant. In addition, it will be possible to more compact placement of fruitful plants in the garden, which will significantly increase the total volume of the harvest from it. At the same time, the quality of the fruits will be excellent, and their size is quite large.

Separately, it is worth noting that winter pruning will allow you to put in order old and unkempt trees up to 10 meters high, the pruning of which was carried out many years ago. At the same time, it is recommended to reduce the height of the tree by 1-2 meters every 2-3 years. This must be done until the plant reaches the dimensions we need. But today, some gardeners believe that staged pruning is not sustainable. Therefore, the method of one-step removal of branches to the required size is now widely practiced.

Shrub pruning

Few people know, but fruit bushes (gooseberries, currants, etc.) should also be pruned. And this should be done in winter. At this time, it is necessary to remove dried and old branches, which will ensure an unobstructed flow of light and air in the summer.The main thing here is not to overdo it, so as not to reduce the viability of the plant, as well as its fruitful potential.

As you can see, winter pruning of fruit bushes and trees will allow you to minimize the risk of injury to plants and carry out all manipulations in the most comfortable conditions. That being said, in the spring, you will need to do much less work to improve your garden in order to get a large harvest.

Video "Pruning fruit correctly"

Using the example of an apple tree, we bring to your attention how to properly prune fruit trees on the eve of winter.