If you only pay attention to your sour cherry tree when it comes to harvesting the fruit, you will soon look puzzled. Without regular pruning, the sour cherry grows old, develops fewer flowers and fruits and is more susceptible to diseases.
When and how do you cut a sour cherry?
The sour cherry should be cut in the summer, between early and mid-August, after the harvest. Depending on the variety, different pruning is necessary: for overhanging varieties, long side shoots must be shortened by two thirds and the old wood thinned out; for upright-growing varieties, it is sufficient to remove or shorten weak and inwardly growing shoots.
When do you cut the sour cherry?
Unlike other fruit trees, the sour cherry is cut at a different time. The best time for thinning is in the summer after the harvest. This is usually the case between early and mid-August.
Cutting depends on the variety
Depending on the variety, sour cherries develop different growth patterns. While some develop whip-like long shoots and have an overhanging growth pattern, others have short fruiting wood and grow upright.
Overhanging varieties
Varieties such as 'Gerema', 'Schattenmorelle' and 'Morellenfeuer' develop a strongly overhanging growth if they are not regularly kept in their place by pruning. Their whip-like shoots become extremely long and they bear fruit on annual wood. With these varieties you have to shorten all long side shoots by two thirds. It is also advisable to make a thinning cut in which old wood is cut out.
Varieties such as 'Ludwigs Frühe', 'Dimitzer' and 'Schwäbische Weichsel' also grow overhanging. In contrast to the varieties already mentioned, their growth is weaker. They also need to be shortened significantly – although less.
Upright growing varieties
The following varieties develop different growth: 'Saphir', 'Favorit', 'Heimann's Ruby Weichsel', 'Carnelian', 'Koröser Weichsel' and 'Morina'. They grow upright, fruit on annual and old wood and are rarely shed. Here it is sufficient to remove or shorten the weak and inwardly growing shoots.
Basic information about cutting sour cherries
If you don't know what variety it is or if you want to choose the easiest way, you should proceed in a similar way to traditional fruit tree pruning. When cutting, you should generally use a sharp tool such as pruning shears (€38.00 on Amazon).
How to proceed:
- prune all branches that have borne fruit vigorously
- do not cut young branches
- thinning once a year to loosen the crown
- removing diseased, dead and old wood
- remove downward or drooping branches
- where to cut: at the base of a new shoot