How to properly prune an apricot in the fall

The apricot is a very intensive tree. Due to this feature, the growth of the crown is very fast, which can adversely affect the condition of the entire plant as a whole. Often, due to the rapid growth of shoots, the apricot tree is subject to various diseasesmay even dry up and die. To avoid such consequences, it is necessary to regularly prune your pet in the fall.

Purpose of pruning apricot

Before considering the aforementioned process, you need to determine why the apricot needs such a procedure at all. The reasons may be as follows:

1. Formation of a beautiful crown... In this case, circumcision is necessary for the aesthetic beauty of the apricot: removal of protruding and too long shoots, the formation of the desired shape of the crown of the tree.
2. Shoot rejuvenation... Intense fruiting and an overly dense crown of the plant lead to aging and death of internal shoots.

3. With no circumcision fruits become smaller, and their number is significantly reduced.
4. Also without this procedure branches under the weight of the fruit will break... It is necessary to regulate the amount of ovary on the shoots.
5. The growth and development of young twigs is reduced, subsequently finally stops. The apricot “grows old”, and, as a result, the fruits lose their varietal qualities, yielding in size and taste.
6. Frosting shoots... If the tree grows in mid-latitudes, it is inevitably exposed to severe frosts. In this case, all affected or dried branches must be removed for sanitary purposes.

Thus, in order to form a neat and beautiful crown for your pet and ensure regular and abundant fruiting, as well as prolong the life of the fruit tree, systematically you need to cut off its shoots.

When to prune a tree

If we talk about the right time to prune an apricot tree, it should be noted that it is necessary to carry out a complex procedure... This means that you need to cut the apricot in the fall, summer and spring.

It is recommended to start the process of cutting branches already in the first year. In the spring, they begin to form a crown, in order to subsequently stimulate abundant fruiting and improve the quality characteristics of the fruit.

In the fall, the plant is pruned for sanitary purposes.... At the same time, all diseased, damaged and dry shoots are removed to heal the whole tree.

Pruning branches in summer to stimulate the formation of young shoots... This procedure is carried out to rejuvenate the apricot with a frequency of once every two or three years.

How to properly prune an apricot in the fall

In the autumn, the apricot must be pruned to remove damaged and non-viable branches. In this way, the plant is prepared for the upcoming wintering and helps to gain strength for the next season. Same an important result of cutting off weak branches will be the formation of young shoots... Often, it is on them that most of the fruits of the apricot tree are formed.

Also a distinctive feature of this fruit tree is that excess ovary is not thrown off by the plant... This leads to breaking off of branches and plant disease.

Therefore, in the fall, it is necessary to carry out not only sanitary, but also regulating and rejuvenating pruning.

Instrument preparation

To care for an apricot tree, you need the following tools:

• secateurs;
• garden grafting knife;
• garden saw;
• sharpening bar;
• twine to support shoots and branches;
• means for closing cuts and wounds (for example, garden pitch).

First, everyone garden tools must be sharpened carefully... A garden knife is sharpened on a wet block in order to remove iron filings. A new pruner, or blunt one, must be disassembled and its blade sharpened. Then check the tool. The secateurs can be adjusted by controlling the tension of the nut: if the grip is too tight, it is loosened, if it is free, it is tightened.

Before starting work for a garden saw, you need to spread the teeth in opposite directions, alternating their slope to the right and left. The bending angle of the teeth is kept the same, with the sharp side all the teeth should be directed inward.

Cutting scheme and technology

In autumn formative pruning of apricot carried out so that the plant in the next season supplies the fruiting shoots with nutrients evenly. That is why this type of pruning is practiced from a young age of trees.

Such pruning is carried out in the following way:

1. In the first year of life, the trees form a crown.cutting the whip by a quarter. On a young plant, two main shoots are left, providing a distance between them of about 30 cm, the remaining branches are removed. The remaining branches are cut to a length less than the length of the whip by 20-30 cm.
2. The next year, two young branches are pruned in the same way., leaving a distance of up to 40 cm between them.
3. In the following years, they carry out the same procedure., increasing the gap by 10 cm.
4. Branches on the central shoot cut in half if they exceed 60 cm the length... The short ones are left unchanged.
5. If the apricot tree has short and weak branches, but they will be able to bear fruit in the future, it is recommended to pinch them until they are strong enough to support the weight of the fruit.

Regulatory pruning helps preserve the crown and yield of the apricot. In this case, shoots are removed with the growth direction inside the crown to ensure a sufficient level of illumination of all parts of the plant.

In an adult plant, the growth of new shoots is often suspended. In order to rejuvenate a mature plant, it is pruned in autumn.:

1. After a careful examination of the plant, several non-fruiting branches are selected. Them sawn off with a garden saw at an angle 45 degrees.
2. Determine some of the strongest shoots, relatively young. Necessary remove branches growing on them, all or a few large ones.

How to care for a tree after pruning

After pruning, the apricot needs attention. After the procedure, the following care steps must be taken:

1. Close up all sections garden pitch.
2. To disinfect large wounds, use copper sulfate solution.
3. For the subsequent adaptation and restoration of the apricot, phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers are applied.

Pruning an apricot tree correctly can seem like a time-consuming process, especially for novice gardeners. But this essential requirement for plant health and ensuring the required quantity and quality of the fruit.