Care for shrubs and trees includes one of the important elements - pruning. This is a rather complicated job, requiring knowledge of agricultural technology of the corresponding breed of tree or berry shrub.
Of course, when processing, they give the tree the desired shape, remove broken or diseased branches, but its main purpose is not this. In trees and shrubs, if they are not trimmed in time, yield decreases over time, the quality of fruits deteriorates, the frequency of fruiting changes, and winter hardiness decreases.
This type of processing of trees is aimed at artificially inhibiting the growth of some branches and enhancing the growth of those that are necessary to form the crown of the tree and subsequently increase its yield.
The main pruning of fruit trees and berry bushes is carried out in early spring. But over the summer, many breeds intensively increase annual shoots, which do not always grow in the right direction, and some branches fall ill or break off for various reasons.
Therefore, pruning of trees is performed in autumn, when leaf fall ends, and with it the growing season
.
It is especially useful to subject winter-hardy apple varieties to this treatment if a very frosty winter is expected.
At fruit trees , thinning of the crown and shortening of shoots are carried out in autumn. Shrub care also involves pruning in the fall. They need autumn pruning even more than trees. It is carried out in order to improve the fruiting of berry bushes. With the help of pruning, bushes are formed, thinned out and rejuvenated.
Pruning is the main ingredient in currant care. All kinds of it must be subjected to this type of treatment.
This is especially necessary for blackcurrant. Firstly, starting from the second year after planting, new shoots need to be cut, leaving three or five of the strongest and healthiest of them. It is necessary to do this every autumn until the bush has 15-18 strong shoots of different ages. Usually the formation of a bush of
black currant ends by the age of five. Then it remains in the spring to cut out obsolete shoots, which are easy to distinguish by the black color of the bark. Since the branches of black currant are not prone to strong branching, it is nice to slightly shorten them. Care for shrubs of white and red currants also consists in the formation of bushes for five to six years, in the removal of weak annual shoots and cutting out obsolete, diseased and excess branches. The time comes when new shoots cease to grow in aging bushes of currant. Then they are subjected to a completely anti-aging pruning. It consists in the fact that in spring half of the old shoots are cut to the soil level. Those shoots that had a good growth last year, and the youngest branches are pinned to the ground. Next year, all remaining old branches are removed. Next, the rejuvenated currant bushes are subjected to conventional pruning.
Thus, care for shrubs is a must to maintain good annual fruiting.