When should the plum tree be pruned? How do you cut it?

If you want the plum tree to have a high yield, in addition to the basic water and fertilizer management, it is also necessary to prune the tree to promote the absorption of nutrients by each branch, ensure the fruit of the next year, and increase the benefit. When will the plum tree be pruned? How do you cut it?

Pruning time of plum trees

Plum trees can be pruned in summer and winter, but they are trimmed differently from season to season.

Summer pruning

Pruning in summer can be carried out for 3 to 5 times: the first time after sprouting in spring, it is mainly to erase the improper buds and weak buds in double buds, reduce invalid branches and save nutrition, and the second time is after falling flowers. Combined with flower thinning and fruit setting, the dense branches were thinned and the competitive branches were controlled; the third time after the hard core, the prosperous branches were shortened to promote the growth of secondary shoots and increase the fruiting area; the fourth time in the early and late autumn, the redundant auxiliary shoots were cut short or thinned, and the long fruit branches were coring to ease vegetative growth and promote flower bud differentiation. Careful pruning in summer can greatly reduce the workload of pruning in winter, which plays an obvious role in saving tree nutrition, maintaining tree potential balance, increasing branch grades and promoting flowering and fruiting.

Winter pruning

On the basis of summer pruning, supplementary pruning is mainly to maintain the tree shape and balanced growth, to maintain the subordinate relationship between branches at all levels, and to adjust the balance between vegetative growth and reproductive growth.

Pruning method of plum tree:

1. Pruning methods in the period of young trees

For the newly planted plum tree is in the young stage, the growth is very exuberant, the trunk branch is very easy to form, so in the process of pruning, we should pay attention to let it form a good tree shape and expand the crown of the young tree. In order to ensure the yield of early fruit trees, pruning should not be overweight, can achieve the normal transport of nutrients, ease the growth of buds on it. Short pruning can be adopted for new seedlings, that is, cutting off part of the annual branches, which is about 1/4, which can ease the growth of branches, give birth to more medium and short branches, and cultivate many types of tree groups. After the annual branches are cut short, their growth ability, growth direction and extension direction are very different. For the full-cut upright branches, it is easy to produce strong branches after short cutting, which can be used to cultivate the backbone of the tree, while other weak branches can be used to cultivate the fruit group. Although short pruning is not conducive to the formation of flower buds of fruit trees, an appropriate amount of short cutting of weak branches can increase the total amount of bud branches and increase the yield of fruit trees.

2. The pruning method at the initial stage of the result

After two to three years of planting, plum trees have entered the fruiting period and have begun to form a yield. The purpose of pruning during this period is to improve the shape of trees, expand the scope of the crown, and cultivate as many fruiting branches as possible. As the winter in Fujian is warmer than that in most parts of the north, but the temperature is still low, truncate each backbone branch as much as possible and reduce the branch density during pruning, which can improve the ventilation condition of plum trees. increase light and save nutrients. However, the number of truncation should not be too much, so as not to cause excessive growth. The branches inside the crown, observe their growth direction and position, as long as the direction is appropriate, do not cut as long as possible.

3. Pruning methods in full fruiting period

After the growth of Li Shusheng entered the full fruit stage, the main branch has grown and the growth of the tree is relatively moderate. At this time, improving the nutritional composition of the plum tree is the principle that must be followed in pruning. After pruning, the morphological structure of the pruned plum tree has been formed, which is the period of the highest plum yield. In the full fruit period, the yield of plum tree increases the consumption of reproductive nutrition year after year. In this period, the main and side branches should be cut off as much as possible to ensure adequate light and ventilation. In this period, on the basis of strengthening fertilizer and water management, controlling the outward movement of fruiting parts by pruning, slowly renewing and cultivating fruiting branches, thinning the overdense erect branches, improving the internal light conditions, keeping the trees strong and prolonging the years of full fruit. Slow release, that is, some 1-year-old branches, do not carry out any pruning, but let it grow naturally, slow tree growth, can promote flower bud differentiation. For erect branches, it must be flattened or sprained from the base first, otherwise the effect is not good. Slow-release branches, after the flower fruit, must be cleaned in time, or truncated, or retracted, in order to keep the tree shape intact and beautiful, conducive to the fruit.

4. Pruning methods in the aging renewal period

After the end of the full fruit period, with the continuous increase of Li Shusheng for a long time, the growth of new bud branches gradually decreased, the tree began to senescence, branches began to die, the quality and yield of plums gradually decreased, and the fruit volume began to decrease. In order to renew the main branches in time, it is very necessary to strengthen the nutrition of fruit trees. for very thick old branches, they can be sawed off directly from the roots. After a period of time, new branches can sprout quickly at the mouth, and the branches with good angle and extension direction can be selected to cultivate into new trunk and fruiting branch group, restore the fruiting ability and prolong the fruiting life.