Michigan State University cherry expert Gregory Lang has been trying to rethink cherry tree renewal and thinks his new method could show promise.
Rather than renewing about one of every 10 major branches on each tree once a year, which is about standard for typical and high-density cherry orchards, he believes it could be done differently.
“What if we change our mindset to fully renew 10 percent of all the trees in the orchard every year so we get a very different renewal response?”
He tested his idea back in 2015 to see what would happen if he pruned heavily bearing, dwarf “Rainier”/Gisela 3 trees with a traditional 10 percent renewal or a radical 100 percent renewal of fruiting wood.
The findings were promising as the traditional renewal success rate was poor due to competition with the crop load, while the radical renewal success rate was 100 percent.
Since then he has performed other trials on different varieties. In addition, he coordinated four additional trials at agricultural research stations in New York, British Columbia and Nova Scotia. “For one of every four or eight trees, depending on the canopy architecture, we’re stubbing back the entire tree. This is an entire removal of the crop,” he said.
This radical pruning leaves about 6-inch stubs that are cut in front of one or two buds, when present, for renewal. “We know that it will be two years before these trees come back into fruiting, but we want to see how the trees develop,” he explains.
According to Mr Lang the results look very promising as the method is working on all rootstock-architecture combinations.
“I’ve already heard from British Columbia, and they said they love it, the whole tree renewal is beautiful, and the trees look great this year. And that’s what I’m seeing too,” Lang said.
source: goodfruit.com
