Apple trees, pear trees, plum trees, cherries, apricots and peaches require regular pruning every year after they enter the fruiting period. Annual pruning begins when the trees are of age 5-8 lat. They are used in fruiting orchards 4 main cutting systems.
X-ray cut
As the name suggests, the purpose of this cut is to facilitate sunlight penetration into the tree's crown. X-rays mainly thin the crown, and sometimes in lowering the tree and reducing its size.
When x-rayed, we remove excess branches from the crown. We also remove dead or diseased branches. If the trees have not been cut for several years, it is necessary to remove entire branches, branches and tiny fruit-bearing twigs. On neglected apple and pear trees, it is sometimes necessary to cut from 1/3 into 2/3 branch, to give the crown the desired shape and density. In trees that are cut regularly, there is less screening every year. First of all, we cut out strong annual shoots, called wolves, twigs growing towards the center of the crown, twigs crossing and overlapping one another. When an apple tree is x-rayed, it is usually cut approximately 20% branches and young shoots.
Overexposure is the most common cutting system for apple trees, pear and plum trees in Europe and America. Only x-rays are used in Polish orchards. It is an easy and efficient system. It makes it possible to keep trees in a specific shape for many years, size and density.
Restoration cut
Renewal cutting consists in maintaining a certain rotation of fruit-bearing shoots in the crown of the tree. A tree cut with this method has branches, with fruiting shoots from 1 into 3 lat. Depending on the tree species, 2-3-year-old shoots or 1-3-year-old shoots are maintained on the tree. Unnecessary shoots are removed in the spring. No fruiting twig remains on the tree longer than 3 lata. In peach orchards, as a rule, only one-year-old shoots are left, but not all of them, at certain distances on the limb, usually every 30-60 cm.
One-year and two-year shoots are left in apricot orchards. In apple orchards the shoots are 1-3 years old or 2-3 years old. This cutting system is rarely used in pear and cherry orchards. The renewing cut is irreplaceable in the cultivation of peaches, which bear fruit mainly on annual shoots. In Europe, it is sometimes performed in apple orchards, apricot and plum. It is not practiced in Poland.
The restoration cut is not difficult, but takes more time than x-raying. Using a renewing cut, it is easier to obtain regular fruiting of trees than with a translucent cut. It can be recommended as a complement to the x-ray, for example, cutting out the oldest twigs, and leaving the younger ones.
Cut into short shoots
This cutting system is derived from the palace and court gardens. In the gardens, trees were given elaborate and often elaborate shapes, and then shoot cutting was used to maintain these shapes. The pruning was performed in the spring and supplemented with the summer pinching of the shoots. From the gardens, short shoots went to commercial orchards. It was mainly used in France, England, in Australia and New Zealand. It is still very popular in the latter two countries.
Cutting into shoots was started on young trees during the crown formation period and was carried out throughout the life of the trees. Trees are known to form short shoots and long shoots. With this method of pruning, all shoots are left on the limbs. Long shoots are shortened to a few eyes in spring or summer. After shortening, both short shoots and long shoots grow from the left eyes. The first is left, and the other shortens again. After a few years, the branches become covered with shoots, which grow into long shoots that require annual pruning. Due to the annual shortening of the long shoots, the branches do not branch, but they retain the shape that was given to them when the crown was formed.
Cutting into short shoots absorbs 2-3 times longer than x-rays. It is an intensive pruning and therefore it delays the entry of trees into the fruiting period and lowers the fruit yield in relation to the light pruning.. It gives the best results in the cultivation of dwarf pears. It makes it possible to obtain particularly impressive fruit with relatively little effort and a slight reduction in yield. It is used less and less frequently in commercial courts. It is hardly known in Poland.
A rejuvenating cut
As the name suggests, the purpose of this cut is to rejuvenate the tree. Even though any cutting system has a rejuvenating effect on the tree, because it stimulates them to produce a large number of young shoots, this rejuvenating cut gives the best results. This cut involves shortening the tops of limbs and branches. On large trees, the branches of o 1-3 m, that is, they are cut at the place of two, three or even five-year increments.
A rejuvenating cut cannot be made annually, and only every few years. We recommend them primarily in older cherry orchards. A rejuvenating cut is usually combined with an X-ray of the crowns. After this cut, the yield in the following year is lower than before the cut, but after two or three years it exceeds the pre-treatment yield. The rejuvenating cut improves the quality of the fruit and the regularity of fruiting.