Pruning barberry in summer, spring and autumn: how to do it right for beginners

Gardeners know little about barberry pruning, although it is grown in almost all areas. This shrub is an excellent honey plant. Its flowers attract bees, which pollinate other flowering plants along the way. The shrub is unpretentious. It perfectly adapts to soils, is insensitive to strong winds and grows rapidly. In order for the plant to please the gardener and not cause inconvenience, timely pruning is required.

The importance of barberry pruning

Why you need to prune shrubs:

1. Without crown formation, this thorny shrub becomes sloppy.
2. And picking berries from such plants is problematic: hands have to be protected with gloves. And pests and fungal spores can overwinter on the remaining fruits.
3. A well-formed bush decorates the site. Several plants planted in a row can serve as a hedge. But without timely intervention, the gardener risks getting painful scratches.

You must not start pruning shrubs: it is quite difficult to form a dense crown.

Terms of works

There are no hard deadlines when barberry should be cut. But agronomists recommend forming deciduous barberry species as soon as the snow melts, and evergreens - in early summer, as soon as they fade.

Usually the gardener starts working on the plants in early spring. At this time, the movement of the juice has not yet begun, and the operation will be painless for the plant. First of all, the branches damaged during the winter are removed, then the crown is formed.

Shaping pruning recommended in summer if not done in spring. With a strong thickening of the shrub, thin it out.

In autumn, the plant needs to be prepared for winter. It is recommended to cut out unripe shoots (this is especially important for regions with cold winters). If the gardener does not plan to prune in the spring, then it is required to do it in the fall.

Required trimming tools

Before starting the procedure, you should check if all the tools are available. Grower will need:

• sharp secateurs;
• thick gloves to protect the skin of the hands;
• potassium permanganate solution or any disinfectant;
• Dense fabric jacket for body protection;
• lopper (in case of working with an old thickened bush);
• garden pitch or oil paint (for cutting sections larger than 5 mm in diameter).

It is recommended to choose a dry, windless day for work: this weather is not only comfortable for the gardener, but also protects the barberry from fungal infection.

Schemes and technology

Properly trimming shrubs is easy enough. Its branches grow almost vertically, rarely tangle. But it can be difficult to give the thickened barberry the desired shape.

Features of pruning a young bush

The first pruning of a young bush is carried out in the first spring after planting. Choose one of the strongest shoots and shorten it to the first bud. Cut out all weak branches. During the summer, the shrub will give abundant shoots. In this form, he will go to winter. The gardener only needs to remove damaged or diseased branches.

The next spring the bush is “planted on a stump”. All branches are cut low, leaving high stumps. During the growing season, awakened buds will give abundant growth. The rule for pruning a young barberry: the operation is carried out only in the spring, in the fall the bush is left alone.

Aging pruning

Old bushes (12 years or more) require rejuvenating pruning. It is recommended to act as follows:

• cut without leaving stumps all the old shoots of dark color;
• weak young too delete;
• part of young cut with leaving stumps;
• cut the rest of the young shoots by 1/3.

One should not be afraid of too radical removal of shoots: the barberry will quickly respond to it and grow new branches. Thus, you can extend the life and fruiting of the shrub in the garden.

Wellness

He alth pruning is carried out at any time of the year. During it, all broken and dried branches are removed. It is definitely recommended to carry out the operation after strong winds, heavy snowfalls, freezing rains.

Shaping

It is easy to form a barberry: all its branches grow almost vertically. The gardener is only required to remove old and tangled shoots in time. It is required to take into account that some barberries give abundant root shoots. It also needs to be cut near the ground. Barberry is easily restored after pruning of any intensity, so it can be given any shape using a topiary frame.

Features of pruning different types of barberry

If the barberry is left alone, it will form into a disheveled ball. This feature is taken into account by landscape designers: most often they cut the barberry in the form of a ball, cone or pyramid.

Sometimes in the garden there are barberry bushes trimmed in the form of a cube or a rectangular parallelepiped. A hedge is formed in this way.

When planning the outline, the gardener must calculate the number of skeletal branches of the plant:

• for a spherical or cubic shape, 2-3 strong shoots are enough;
• pyramid or cone suggests 6-8 skeletal shoots of different lengths.

It is impossible to give the required shape to a plant in one season. First, the gardener should determine the number and direction of the main branches, and the next year, using a frame or template, finish pruning.

Care after the procedure

Properly done pruning is half the battle. The plant needs help after the procedure. Without a complex of recreational measures, the bush will stop bearing fruit and wither away.

How to feed the bush

After spring pruning, the barberry needs nitrogen. Under each adult plant, it is required to add a bucket of mature compost or rotted manure.Organics are recommended to be evenly distributed around the trunk circle. Gardeners organize liquid top dressing with fermented grass. To do this, dilute 1 liter of infusion in 10 liters of water and water the shrub.

After sanitary summer or formative autumn pruning, the plant needs to be given potassium and phosphorus. The sources of these elements are inert flour, furnace ash. With a shortage of components, mineral complex fertilizers are used.

When decorative pruning, the plant is given a liquid foliar top dressing. An infusion of fermented grass or a ready-made complex top dressing (potassium humate) will do.

How to care for large cuts

It is unacceptable to leave sections larger than 0.7 cm unprocessed. Fungal spores or pathogenic bacteria penetrate the wounds. An infected barberry will have to be treated.

To prevent such problems, it is recommended to cover up sections immediately. Suitable:

• garden pitch (layer thickness no more than 1 mm);
• oil paint;
• garden antiseptic;
• brilliant green solution.

Properly processed sections quickly overgrow with bark, hollows do not form, and the wood does not rot.

What problems might you encounter

Barberry perfectly tolerates even rejuvenating pruning. It quickly recovers and continues to bear fruit. But beginner gardeners face challenges:

• when pruning, burrs remain, leading to rotting of the core of the shoots;
• stumps form, giving rise to hollows in a few years;
• too sharp anti-aging operation slows down the growth of barberry.

When pruning a plant for the first time, do not rush: it is better to divide the procedure into 2-3 stages.

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