Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
fruit room to develop. If this sounds too
labour-intensive, whack the branches with a
stick to dislodge fruitlets; it also relieves stress
in the pruner!
At harvest (see Figure 6.12), twist the fruit
gently off the spur or side growth so as not to
damage future fruiting wood.
Cherries
Sweetcherries
Prunusavium
Sweet cherries are generally large trees to
10 m unless they are grafted onto a dwarfing
rootstock. Cherries are beloved by birds, so a
large tree to be netted requires enormous
effort and sometimes grounds for divorce.
The solution is, of course, a dwarfing
rootstock. The Colt rootstock will produce a
cherry from one to two metres high, which is
easy to manage in a domestic situation,
perfect for fan espaliers or the Spanish bush
system (see Figure 6.13). It will also make a
neat open vase tree (see page 126, 'Free-
standing fruit trees').
Figure 6.13
The typical upright growth habit of sweet
cherry, here trained as a Spanish bush. It is easy to see
where the annual pruning cuts have been made.
(Photo courtesy of Bob Magnus,
www.woodbridgefruittrees.com.au)
Encourage the branches to spread at a large
angle from its trunk/branch by tying down
the new shoots with weights or using wooden
spreaders (see Figure 6.14).
Weights are easy to manage and easily moved
out of the way for the mower. Spreaders are
really just a notched stick running from
branch to branch to spread the stems.
Don't force them too tightly as a stem may
split off.
The sweet cherry is a naturally upright-shaped
tree when young, only spreading when
burdened with fruit. If you are planting a
sweet cherry on non-dwarfing rootstock
remember to allow enough space for it to
spread as far as it is tall when mature.
These devices can be used on any tree to
spread the branches.
Fruitingwood
Sweet cherries fruit on long-lived spurs that
last for many years in much the same way as
apples and pears. Most sweet cherries need
cross-pollination; however, there are new
cultivars that are self-fertile such as Stella,
Lapin, Sunburst and Simone.
After initial pruning at planting for the
chosen shape (see pages 17, 126 and 151), cut
back new growth from the selected branches
by about three or four buds. This will
encourage branching lower in the canopy and
prevent the large lengths of bare branch that
these trees are prone to (see Figure 6.13).
