Pruning cherry tree

bstewert

bstewert

TreeHouser
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Portland, OR
I have a cherry tree to prune, about 25' tall and wide, no central leader. Tree is on a slope, so nowhere good to put a ladder, and no good single tie in points. Customer wants it thinned, but I'm thinking this time of year just do dead and crossing branches. Thoughts? How big can cherry trees get?
 
Depends on the variety, I have Pruned some well over 50' tall. Light pruning should be fine year round
 
Be glad you're light, Bob... no central leader. Fiskars pruning stick? Bull pruner?

Do you have an orchard ladder? Rent a tall one? Put the single leg way up slope, use a rope between rungs and pole to prevent slideout??


Why do they want it thinned? Because trees 'need' to be thinned?
 
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Personally, I think the tree looks pretty good right now. If you look hard, you can see a crossing branch here and there, looks a bit like an umbrella pruning. The yard is immaculate. Owner would like a little more light coming thru.

Sean, I have a Tallman orchard ladder, but only 10'. Wish I had bought the Stokes, with the telescoping leg. This would have been the perfect situation for it. It has the rope for the leg. What do you mean "pole" to prevent slideout.

I should have taken a pic. Underneath the cherry is a waterfall feature, and lots of fully bloomed hydrangeas. Yikes!

Willie, I just read that bing cherries get to 70'.
 
It would be hard to prune many trees well without a pole pruner. Recommend that purchase. I got a fiskars at a Lowe's once.
 
Ran into a weeping Cherry that was previously "pollarded?"

Any advice on when/how it should be trimmed up again?

Already took out one larger (2 1/2" dia) apical section that hed died. There is another fairly large (for this little tree) one going up. To the sides there are many smaller weeping ones.
 
Cherries here sometimes get big enough to make a table out of one board. :D Often around graves where they once were planted to accompany. Very hard to find big ones without defects.
 
So I've found fall pruning suggestions on the net.

My question is do I prune it for shape or take everything off? It's been a long time since it has had any care. ~8" dia. that was originally pruned at about 7'.
 
Perhaps over simplistically said, but can't you just prune to reduce size and best try to keep a clean natural effect. Let your conscience be your guide. :)
 
I'll try to get a picture as soon as I am back in town for a day.

Jay, I have no idea. First time I've run into this...definitely not the norm around here. I care more about the health of the tree here, as it could never look "natural" to me, more like a tall stump with some sprouts growing off the top.
 
I'd do what Jay said...For the first go at it, prune it as best you can for shape and stability.
Prune it now in summer, and have another go at it in winter.

I've got a whole orchard od fruit trees I take care of, done them twice in summer, pretty hard, but still keeping structure and shape uppermost, now that the fruit spurs are thickening up and developing well, I've winter pruned to thin them out and cut down on the number f bigger branches.

I don't think you can go wrong in the first instance doing what we always do to try and leave a reasonably 'Tree' looking tree after someone else's botch up.
 
Managed to stop in and take a picture the other day.

One of my main concerns is whether the larger stuff on top should come off. Borders a lot of open fields (wind).

This is a "whatever is best for the tree" job, as it was planted to remember some anniversary the owner doesn't recall now.
 

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Bob, on hard surfaces, the pile can slide while you are on the rungs. Tie some accessory cord into a prussic around the pole, and do a 180* wrap on a rung and tie it back to the rope with a friction hitch.

Prussic adjusts up and down the pole. Other friction hitch adjusts the length.

Sleeving the pole and drilling through both sleeved pipe and the pole/ third leg would allow adjustment on the hill, when needed (he said from the armchair).

Dave, is take out the top now, leave the rest for the next pruning cycle, or you risk taking a huge percentage of the canopy, imo.
 
Taking to much foliage was one of the things i was concerned about.

I hadn't figured if I should take the whole large vertical pieces off at once or prune it down gradually in several steps.
 
Half the vertical portion, might be reasonable. Cleaning some dead wood out of there, if any, might help the appearance. With the top gone, you should hopefully get more vigorous growth in the upper, and weeping portion, and work more from there in a year.
 
Pretty much what I'm thinking too, looking to encourage new growth to try and salvage a pleasing form. There doesn't seem like much you can do to not at least initially have it looking like someone went at the tree in their sleep. i'd be cutting back the lower portion as well to try and give some balance, and maybe that will help to encourage the top as well. Poor thing!
 
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