Cherry pruned
Today's assignment was to prune a Japanese Cherry (a fruit tree) as short as possible. That's a challenge. Because you want the tree to continue living as healthily as possible. The tree had not been pruned for years, resulting in a tall, dense forest of long, thin branches.
The Japanese flowering cherry for pruning
...and after pruning.
This drastic pruning ensures that this tree grows in width and can lower the crown. In time, lower branches will also develop on the trunk so that the crown as a whole becomes slightly lower, within reach. It may not look great temporarily, but in the long term it will make the tree better and more manageable. By pruning the tree regularly from now on, the desired, lower, spherical shape can be achieved.
Photos from this project
