～ How to prune lemon tree. ～
To improve the fruit of next year!
１、Purpose of pruning lemon trees
Pruning is to cut branches and arrange the shape of wood.
① Make the tree compact.
② Improve sunshine and ventilation and reduce pest and disease damage.
③ Make the fruits easy to attach the following year.
It has the effect as above.
Citrus tree is strong against pruning, it seems that it will hardly die even if it fails a bit, so let's actively challenge!
２、The optimum period of pruning lemon ⇒ February - March
The optimum period of pruning is from late February to late March where the growth of branches and leaves becomes moderate and the influence of cold is also less.
The contents of pruning are as follows for both garden plant and potted plant.
① Reduce the spread of trees.
If you want to reduce the height of the tree and the spread to the side and want to make it compact, decide the rough shape of the tree and cut the thick branch with a saw etc.
If you want to trains lemon trees in the shape of HENSOKUSHUKAN, pruning the trees after the fourth year and stopping the core.
In order to suppress the height of the tree, cutting a long branch halfway, a longer branch will occur the following year.
Also, it is important to completely cut all parts where branches are divided.
If some branches are left, the remaining part (protruding part) withers and there is a possibility that it will wither to an important part.
Attention should also be paid to the amount of cutting branches.
By pruning once a year, if you lower suddenly the tree height, only the thick and long branches are generated from the vicinity of the cut in the following year. Moreover, the fruits are less likely to live for several years.
So, the height to be devalued in one year will be about 50 cm and will be gradually lowered in 2 to 3 year plan.
② Cut off unnecessary branches
After the work of "① Reducing tree spread" is completed, next unnecessary branches are cut off.
However, if you cut too many branches, fruit of that year will decrease, besides, long and thick branches will occur in the pruned year, and fruits will decrease after the next year, so be careful.
The upper limit is to cut off 10% to 30% of the entire branches, so that the leaves touch lightly.
Also, here we need to preferentially cut out branches that are unlikely to produce fruit in the pruned year. Branches that have become fruit this season, summer branches and autumn branches tend to have less fruit. So we cut those branches preferentially.
Spring branches that do not have traces of fruit should be preferentially left.
③ Truncate the tip of a long branch
Choose only the long branches (over 25 cm) of the branches left after the work in ① ~ ② above and cut down about ⅓ of the tip. By truncating, many branches of appropriate length will occur in spring of pruned year.
Why are we cutting down only long branches because the long branches over 25 cm use most of the nutrition for the growth of the branches, so they do not attract much flower buds. By truncating it produces a full branch and fruits will be grown the following year.
Conversely, if a branch that has not grown long is cut too much at its tip, the fruit will not be formed in the pruned year. Citrus flower buds bloom only near the tip of a branch. So be careful if you cut the branches too long, you will lose a lot of flower buds.
３、Characteristics of spring branch, summer branch, autumn branch
and summer pruning
Citrus branches are roughly divided into spring branches extending from March to June, summer branches extending from June to August, and autumn branches extending from August to October.
Fruit sticks to spring branch in that year. Even spring branches that did not produce fruits will be useful because they will bloom in the following year and produce fruits.
Because summer branches tend to become long branches, only a few flowers and fruits will be formed even in the next spring.
Because autumn branches have poor growth, they do not almost bloom.
Since both the summer branch and the autumn branch are unnecessary, at the same time as it was born, cut it from the base. (Pruning in summer)
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It is difficult to distinguish spring branch, summer branch, autumn branch in pruning time of March, and experience is necessary.
Please be aware that summer branches grow to over 25 cm and the cross section of summer branches and autumn branches tends to be triangular.
４、After pruning, apply a fusion accelerator
When the above steps ① to ③ are completed, apply a fusion accelerator to the incision to prevent withering by pruning and invasion of pathogens.
（You can apply a fusion accelerator while cutting.）
The fusion accelerator is a pasty liquid in which a disinfectant has been kneaded. The fusion accelerating agent is gradually solidified when it is applied and comes into contact with air.
If you can not get it by all means, you can substitute woodworking adhesive.
For those who are hard to apply to all cuts, it is better to preferentially apply to the part with a diameter of 1 cm or more.
＊When it adheres to clothes etc, it is very hard to remove,
so be careful not to touch it until it solidifies! !
Here is an article that I tried pruning in practice!
If you have time, please read through.
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A comment received at a later date!
About withering by branching pruning.
『Also, it is important to cut all the parts where the branches are divided. If you do not cut off everything from the branches (leave a branch a little), the leftover part withers and its deadness may spread to the trunk as well. 』
There are many people who do not know well about this attention of pruning.
The branch part that left a little leaves the path of nutrients and there is no leaf naturally so you can not accumulate assimilation nutrients.
There is attention with pruning of lemon.
Lemon is introvert.
There is a habit of attaching fruits to thin inner branches.
When pruning the lemon, please also leave thin inner branches.
This is what I learned for the first time.
I was cutting the thin inner branch during pruning.
To make it well-ventilated.
I would like to pay attention to it.
I summarized how to grow lemon.
「How to grow a lemon.」
You can read it, 「Here」！！
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