• The safest period to carry out an appropriate summer pruning would be from the second half of January, but with a deadline for it to be used by the plants until the second half of February.
• If you need to lower the height of the plants and remove vigorous material, it is very important to do it in summer because the reaction of the following season is much less potent in vegetative terms than if it is done in winter.

Summer is the instance that is generated to promote the light or “harvest” the light from the plants in the cherry orchards. It is during this post-harvest stage that light must enter the canopy of the plant for the proper functioning of its fertility processes.

Floral induction begins around 70 days after full flower and flower differentiation occurs between approximately 110 to 140 days after full flower, which in months of the year correspond to the months of December, January and perhaps part of February, adding the two periods.

The most important factor influencing these two processes is light, thus light harvesting, light recovery or light harvesting by trees for nutrition (in terms of bud formation and mineral nutrition). is essential for its development.

“It is for this reason that summer pruning is extremely important and has two main objectives, which are lighting and vigor control. It is essential to establish this pruning as a general management in orchards in production in which, once the fruit is harvested, an important lighting pruning procedure must be carried out, especially in those orchards with greater vigor.” said Carlos Tapia, Avium director.

When should this pruning begin? Ideally, as soon as possible after harvest, however, it is recognized that very early summer prunings, mainly concentrated at the end of December to the first 15 days of January, have a reaction on the vegetation, therefore, they are prunings in which a lot of thick material can regrow in the season and many times these regrowths are undesirable because they do not manage to get lignified before the onset of winter. Therefore, the safest period for removing material would probably be from the second half of January, but with a deadline for it to be used by the plants until the first half of February.

As a vigor control, summer pruning is devitalizing pruning, that is, if you need to lower the height of the plants, remove material from the plant, it is super important to do it in summer because the reaction of the following season is much less powerful. in vegetative terms than if it is done in winter.

“If I place it in terms of date, the summer pruning should start from December 20 or 25, considering that it can regrowth, and it should finish for a powerful effect on vigor control before March 15. This is super important in orchards with excess vigor or in orchards that need to lower height as a practice year after year.added the expert.

Bibliographic references

• Personal communication Carlos Tapia, Director Avium.