Pruning apricots in summer, spring and autumn: how to properly shape, diagram

Trees that recently grew only in the south are now cultivated by gardeners in mid-latitudes. Apricots are highly branched, thick branches develop quickly, which leads to thickening of the crown. The fruits are smaller, which affects the yield. Caring for a stone fruit crop consists not only of watering and fertilizing, apricot pruning should be carried out regularly, which helps to rejuvenate the tree, prevents the growth of shoots, and prevents the branches from breaking under the weight of the fruit.

Choosing tools for working with apricot

To form a crown, shorten the shoots, you need to stock up on inventory. You need to buy a pruner, and a grafting knife, and a garden saw, and a file. Be sure to have a bar on hand, which tools have to be sharpened quite often. Apricot wood is tight and strong, so inventory quickly becomes dull. The secateurs are adjusted with a nut that can be tightened and released.

Before cutting, the teeth of the saw are spread to point them inward with the sharp side. Before starting work, the tool is disinfected with an antiseptic so that microbes from a diseased branch do not get on a he althy plant. Rust on the saw and knife is smeared with garden paste, which is cleaned with a whetstone before work.

Tree pruning timing

Dried apricot shoots are removed at any time. The shortening of the processes, the formation of the crown is carried out before the opening of the kidneys.All garden work is carried out in spring and autumn and is completed with the end of the sap flow. Pruning is carried out not only to rejuvenate the apricot, to form a crown, but also to remove frozen shoots.

Not always a thermophilic culture normally tolerates a cold winter. To stimulate the growth of young branches, pruning is also started in the summer.

Spring

When the apricot bark changes color, the juice starts to move, summer residents who have had a rest over the winter will have a lot of work, because it's time to prune: both rejuvenating and sanitary. Shoots that grow inside the trunk are removed with a sharp tool, the crown is cleaned, be sure to follow the slope so that the sections lead to the kidney. Dry, frozen branches are removed, which take strength from he althy shoots.

It is necessary to form a crown on a fruit-bearing tree until a cone of green leaves has formed. The flowering period is not suitable for pruning.

Summer

Excessive ovary does not fall off apricots, there are many fruits left, which causes branches to break. For a couple of years, small and large skeletal shoots are formed on one tree. In summer, 2 pruning is carried out. In June, they start minting, which contributes to the rapid growth of leaves:

1. Strong annual branches longer than 30 cm are shortened by half, weak - by 1/3.
2. After 14-16 days, the strongest of the new shoots that have appeared.
3. The tree is formed into several tiers, directing the crown to the desired position.

Such a rejuvenating pruning is not performed every year, but at least after 3. Buds form on young shoots, which helps to increase fruiting in the next season.

When performing the procedure in August, the leaves do not have time to grow. After pruning, the apricot must be watered, as it requires a lot of water. If the weather is dry, irrigation is impossible, it is not recommended to shorten the shoots, the plant can get sick.

Autumn

After harvest, pruning is done to remove damaged and dry branches. Freeing the apricot from weak shoots, they help it survive the winter, accumulate strength for the next year, and form new shoots.

In mid-October, 3 types of pruning begin:

• sanitary;
• regulating;
• anti-aging.

However, the procedure does not apply to late varieties of apricots. Long branches are shortened by half a meter, pinching the main shoots.

Change in terms of circumcision depending on the region of growth

The climate of the southern regions is significantly different from the weather conditions in the central regions. Although breeders have bred varieties of apricots that take root and bear fruit in the middle lane, the timing of pruning is slightly different.

In the Krasnodar Territory, in the North Caucasus, shoots on trees are shortened as early as February and March, while in the Kursk Region, gardening begins in early April.

In the southern regions, autumn pruning continues in November, in the middle latitudes it ends until October 15, otherwise the apricot may freeze in winter.

Varieties of forms

Young shoots on fruit trees bear fruit abundantly for 3 years. In the spring, a mass of ovaries appears on them, but after a short period, the yield decreases, but new branches grow to replace them. Experienced gardeners know how to give apricot a decorative look. The cypress form helps the owner of a small plot save space for planting other crops. The crown of the tree is compact, not sprawling.

Apricot, which is formed in the form of a palmette, grows in a bush and looks very beautiful, it is a pleasure to pick fruits from it. Such a pruning scheme is quite complicated, not every gardener will be able to master the process.

The easiest way is to make the tree look like a ball. Shoots are shortened in the third year after planting.

For tall apricots, the sparse-tiered form is more suitable, because it hinders growth. In regions where there is a cold winter, a lot of snow falls, the slate form prevails. Low trees are made to look like a bowl:

1. 4 years after planting, 3 strong branches are selected from the apricot, the rest are shortened to stumps.
2. In the future, the shoots are equal so that they have the same length.
3. On the branches of the skeletal type, 2 more smaller sizes are formed, leaving no more than half a meter between them.

Regulation pruning is done to remove the shoots that grow inside the trunk. The procedure helps to improve lighting.

Rules for crown formation

Despite the fact that apricots may look like an ornamental shrub, cypress or palmette, all these fruit trees do not thicken the crown, but it turns out to be sparse due to the fact that it is formed over the years before fruiting. First, the correct pruning is performed, and then only the branches are removed and shortened so that the fruit crop is well lit by the sun's rays.

Young tree

After planting an apricot in open ground until next spring, a central, rather strong shoot grows. In autumn, before the cold sets in, it is shortened by ¼ length.

At 2 years old

The tree continues to develop. A two-year-old apricot already has 3 lateral branches, each of which is slightly pruned during the warm period. This procedure helps the young plant not to die in severe frosts and even get stronger by spring.

3 years

Exactly how long you need to wait for a large number of branches to grow on an apricot. They form a crown in the form of a ball. After 3 years, the old shoots are disposed of, because during this period their fruiting worsens. Although the tree will start to sprout, there will be less fruit.

4-5 years old

At this age, new branches form on the main branches on the apricot. They are to be cut. The shoots are shortened by 15 cm. The distance between the shoots is increased by 10 centimeters every year. On the central trunk, long branches are reduced by half, short ones are not touched.

6-7 years old

By this age, the crown of the tree should be formed. Regulatory pruning is enough for an adult apricot. It is performed so that the tree does not thicken, is well lit by the sun and delights with fruits.

Fructifying buds are formed at a height of 30 cm from the top of young shoots. After 3 years, they do not produce a crop, it becomes necessary to form new bouquet branches.

Features of anti-aging pruning

With improper care and in old trees, shoots stop growing, but apricots recover well. There are several ways to rejuvenate pruning, which helps to prolong fruiting.

In the first variant, the branches that extend from the skeletal ones are shortened to the base. This contributes to the emergence of a large number of new shoots. Almost all are removed, and those that grow horizontally or are located at an angle of 45 ° are left.

In the second option, the skeletal branches are subject to exposure and pruning by approximately half the length. This helps rejuvenate the apricot.

With the 3rd method, the main shoots are completely removed, but first they are shortened by 30 centimeters from the trunk. When new processes come out of the buds, choose one that is left as a skeletal branch. You can not cut several thick shoots at the same time, otherwise the apricot may get sick.If the process is successful, only after 3 years is another shoot replaced.

Necessary post-pruning care

When forming the crown and shortening the shoots, the tree must be carefully looked after. After completing the procedure, proceed to other important work:

1. Places of cuts are covered with garden pitch with a layer of at least 0.5 cm.
2. Extensive wounds are disinfected with copper sulfate.
3. In order for the apricot to take root faster, fertilizers containing phosphorus and nitrogen are applied to the near-stem circle.

If the sections are not processed, microbes start and the plant gets sick. The putty agent can be prepared independently from fir resin. In a metal bowl, 100 g of this substance is mixed with 10 grams of wax and heated until the mass melts. When it cools down, pour in a spoonful of warm alcohol.

Var, which hardens quickly and closes cuts well, can be prepared from other components. On a small fire, you need to melt 400 g of rosin, 200 beeswax and 110 fat. When the mixture is heated, pour a glass of linseed oil, mix and send to cold water.

Errors during the trimming procedure

Although the apricot is considered an unpretentious plant, and breeders have created many hybrid varieties, in order for the tree to enjoy the harvest of large fruits, it needs to be watered, fed, and the crown should not thicken. Even a small mistake can cause great harm:

1. When pruning shoots with a blunt saw, barbs form on the bark, into which microbes are sent, and the branch begins to rot.
2. When the procedure is performed in late autumn, when the temperature drops significantly, the wounds no longer heal, and the apricot often dies in severe frosts.
3. Lack of processing of cuts, the use of a non-disinfected tool is fraught with infection of the tree.

It is impossible to leave branches that extend from the trunk at an angle of 30 °, apricots do not drop the ovary, and heavy fruits break them off. In mid-latitudes, pruning is not recommended in autumn, trees may not survive.

During the procedure, some gardeners do not adhere to the rules, but they must be followed:

1. Deleting all branches going down.
2. Shoots older than 5 years are cut at a 45° angle.
3. The crown must be freed from processes directed to the middle.
4. Dangling branches are shortened to the point where the branching begins.

The length of the trunk is left at a height of 2 meters. An apricot can be fully rejuvenated only after 3 years, otherwise the probability of its death is high.

Beginner gardeners sometimes don't know that shoots should be cut near the buds and not leave stumps. They harbor microbes that cause serious illness.

To shorten thick branches, you need to use a saw, but such a tool is not suitable for thin shoots, a pruner is designed for this. Cut points must be cleaned with a sharp knife.

When the crown is very dense, remove shoots that grow from the inside or are directed downwards.

On mature apricots, old branches must be thinned out, sick ones should be cut off, however, some gardeners first shorten not weak shoots, but those that are incorrectly located.

Gross mistakes include the processing of sections with manure that did not have time to overheat, or chemical paint. Such substances burn wood, and these wounds do not heal for a long time.

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