It's cherry pruning time! We met with our fieldman Tom Pitts last week to get his advice pruning our Skeenas and Sweethearts. Tom's a natural teacher. He doesn't know it, but I do. If he ever gets tired of field work, he would be a great post secondary horticulture teacher. Bill and I always enjoy his visits with all his excitement about farming.
His advice/lessons usually involve him thinking out loud about the latest research and grower feedback concerning the topic at hand. In this case, the latest thinking is that Skeenas produce more if they're not tipped. He recommended we leave the tops. Basically, the less you prune, the more they fruit.
Tom offered to prune the first tree and think out loud as he made choices on what to cut and what to leave.
The first tree Tom pruned for us he "stubbed/tipped" the branches.
Tom is pointing at a one year old shoot that has been tipped to promote branching and growth. He told us to cut limbs we left last year, as one year shoots, back to the now 2 year old wood with fruit buds. He told us last year and again this year to leave lateral or flat one year old shoots.
This tree was not stubbed/tipped. You'll take my word for it right? I know this picture doesn't really show what I had hoped. He said we should cut back to the fruit. When we spray this summer with a moderate crop load we'll want to use a more dilute spray.
Tom was on fire teaching and cutting and then ..... a sprinkler line got in between his pruning blades. We had a good laugh over the ease of slicing irrigation lines.
Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Beautiful fruit buds! This is because we tied the limb down so it would grow flat. Horizontal limbs produce more fruit than vertical limbs. After the crew prunes, we'll send them in to tie down limbs.
After Tom's demonstration Bill gave it a go. We think we're ready to bring the crew in to show them this year's pruning plan. Overall, the trees look really good. The fruit buds indicate we'll have a moderate crop load if they all set and don't split. Last summer about the middle of July, we had a little rain that hit most of the state of Washington. Everybody's Skeenas ruptured on the suture line of the cherry. They didn't just have a thin split. No, they ruptured and splayed open like a ripe watermelon dropped on the carport. I was so mad! Up until that point, it was looking like we were going to finally have a decent crop with this young block. Cherries have made me crazy before but my New Year's resolution is to be a Zen cherry farmer. I also want to be as successful as the Peebles brothers who can grow 14 ton to the acre, so my resolution is to be somewhere between Zen and 14 ton to the acre.
Last spring we met with the Peebles brothers to get their secret. They were so nice and eager to share what they've learned. Are you ready? Write this down, take a little note to remind you in case you didn't know (Oh, I broke out into George Strait lyrics):
1. Nitrogen
2. Limb tying
3. Zinc
We'll discuss this more later!
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