HOW TO PRUNE SWEET CHERRY TREES - PRUNUS AVIUM STELLA (DWARF) GISELA 5

I bought a Prunus avium 'Stella', Gisela 5, a sweet fruiting cherry tree, a few weeks ago and am so delighted to see cherries growing.  As much as I want a cherry tree, I want it just as much for the beauty of a small tree in my garden as well as the white flowers and the red fruits.  But I have been faced with the quandary of: if to prune, how to prune, what to prune, where to prune, and when to prune.  While there are lots of internet pages giving advice on pruning a cherry tree, many only seem to deal with building up a shape and others seem to give conflicting advice.   I found one website of a cherry tree supplier that said that if its reader wanted to know how to prune cherries there was lots of information on the internet.  How unhelpful! 





Prunus avium Stella, Gisela 5 - 15 June 2013

Prunus avium Stella, Gisela 5 - 15 June 2013



Prunus avium Stella, Gisela 5 - 18 July 2013

See this lady giving a YouTube demonstration on how she gently wedged open branches, when possible, using a clothes peg!



Prune young cherry trees in early spring when cherry blossom buds are swelling and about to open is the best time I understand.  Apparently, at this time the tree is very active and any cuts should heal rapidly and thus, hopefully, avoid disease entering the tree such as silver leaf (RHS link).  More mature trees should be pruned, if necessary, after harvesting the fruit around late July/August, well before winter while the trees are still active so that the wounds can heal.  Do not prune during winter months. 



Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) advice on caring for sweet cherry trees.  Well worth reading for further information on general care and maintenance.



I also found this Which.co.uk PDF link on pruning cherries trees which is very helpful if you wish to download or view it. 



Tree Maintenance gives advice on pruning cherries with explanations on how cherry trees differ from, say, apple trees, as far as maintenance is concerned. 



Pruning a young cherry tree (Wiki link with images)



This is an interesting YouTube clip by Dr Greg Lang (he has many videoclips on the subject on YouTube), about pruning Gisela cherry trees.  He tells us things that I have not come across elsewhere.  (TSA = Tall Spindle Axis which means that he has not shortened the central leader).  To keep a tree small, many are grown as open centre trees. 



Radical pruning of an overgrown cherry tree (Youtube link).

How to prune fruit trees (Youtube link)

Pruning a mature sweet cherry tree (Gisela 5) (Youtube link)

Pruning sweet cherry tree using Kym Green Bush system (keeps the tree small - YouTube link)



Interesting advice with images on young sweet cherry trees (Vegetablegardener.com)