I have a 6 year old rainier cherry tree with less than ideal shape for picking. I bought the tree this way and foolishly never chopped off the central leader. I tried to induce branching by notching but had no luck.
Right now the tree is about 12’ tall with most branching 8’ above ground. Ideally I’d like it much shorter.
Anyone have experience with doing this successfully? If i chopped off the top do you think I’d get branching? I have zero experience with grafting but thought that might also be an option.
I’d appreciate any thoughts people have. Thanks!
Also I’m in zone 6b, Pittsburgh, PA
You could cut it back severely and see if it will throw a shoot from lower on the trunk. But I wouldn’t cut it below branches with leaves. That straight bare trunk might not throw a shoot.
To me it doesn’t look that tall. It’s probably best to leave it as it is. A heavy pruning right now will knock out most of the crop for 2-3 years.
The other thing you might do is spread it out as much as possible via training and pruning.
I agree with Steve, the best thing to do no is to create a weeping cherry tree sort like an umbrella by gradually bending all the scaffolds down an around the tree’s perimeter. Cherry is a very strong wood but do this gradually going back once a week to tighten your Guide wires that should go down to some strong stakes driven into the ground. Make certain that you use something soft around each scaffold where you attach the guide wires to prevent damaging or girdling the bark! As you go back each week to tighten the wires pulling them closer to the ground, and check your scaffold ties to assure no girdling. Keep the wires on all growing season. You might be also able to bend that central leader in what ever direction you have unused space and it’s not shading your scaffolds. Try to evenly distribute the scaffold around the perimeter so that all get adequate sun. This is the ideal time to bend and train scaffolds while they are more supple than when dormant, just go slow! Create the tree you want! Welcome to the forum!
Dennis
Kent, Wa
It looks like there are several lower branches, you could remove the leader at that point to make more of an open tree… the lower branches would become the vase.
Rather than topping the tree, would creating a spiral curdling cut that is open at bound sides, at the desired new scaffold height, induce branching on cherry? I did this to a plum and pear, and both sent many new scaffold branches out below the girdle, while allowing the scaffold above to remain while the new scaffold grows. I was actually considering trying this on a younger cherry, this year, as notching produced no new growth.
I’ve lowered the height of 3 mature cherry trees and learned the hard way that sunscald is the worst problem that I encountered. When upper branches are removed, lower branches are exposed to increased amounts of sunshine, which often kills the newly exposed cambium layer. The dead cambium and associated bark will eventually peel off, leaving an open wound that is susceptible to fungal infestation. Two of the trees that I topped developed the fungus that produces Turkey Tail mushrooms. Once mushrooms appear, you know that the associated fungus has already spread far into the heartwood of the branches or trunk of the tree. If it gets into the trunk, the tree will certainly die; but it will take several years before it gets to the hazardous stage.
Protection of the bark newly exposed to sunshine should prevent sunscald, but I tried whitewashing with latex paint on one of the trees. It has the worst Turkey Tail infestation, and I plan to cut it down in two years. There should be more effective ways to shade the newly exposed bark.
