As the weather improved so did cherry fruit quality and quantity, and the cherry season still has about four weeks to run.
After harvest take a closer look at both fruit bud development and the new shoot growth triggered by all the rains.
Fruit bud development appears strong, particularly in cultivars that had light to medium crops—as is often the situation.
Control extra shoot growth
The extra shoot growth can be controlled by mechanical hedging of the tops and sides of the trees, or by manual pruning.
Increasing fruit bud development
When looking at options to increase fruit bud development, I recall visiting the orchard of Bud and Lola Costa in California in 1983 with four other Australian growers.
Snap new growth
Bud showed us how after the evening meal, he would walk the orchard and rather than remove some vertical shoots on a tree, he would snap the new growth close to the parent limb, leaving the new growth pointing down but still attached and able to continue growing.
These shoots would form fruit buds the following season, adding to greater production the season after that. Bud has long since passed but his ideas endure.
Tabletop Central Leader
Similar techniques are applied in the Tabletop Central Leader (see Sweet Cherries by Lynn Long, Greg Lang and Clive Kaiser). Vertical and lateral branches are re-assigned by breaking and leaving in place to form horizontal and downward pointing branches with the aim of inducing fruit bud development.
It is important to prune out competitive and light reducing growth in order to get the right balance between vigour and productive growth.
Twist to crack
The other method to reduce vertical growth and turn it into a horizontal productive shoot is to hold the shoot in one hand and twist forward with the other until a crack is heard.
This will lower the direction of the shoot and will assist in making extra fruit buds—because vertical growth in most cultivars is slower and less precocious than flat wood.
There is always plenty to do in a cherry orchard, all you need is time.
See this article in Tree Fruit Jan 2023
