Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Pruning makes me sad. I know it's good for my plants but amputating healthy branches just seems unnatural to me (plus I'm terrified of killing something with my lack of pruning knowledge).

I thought it might be useful to have a pruning support thread for those of us with pruning-phobia to ask questions, get reassurance and share tips on how not to cry when cutting bits off beloved plants!

I'll start with the first (stupid) questions:
All the advice on gooseberry pruning says to cut back this years growth to the first 5 leaves, next year will it just start growing again from where it was cut this year? Should I be cutting at a specific place on the branch (ie just after a leaf)?

What about cherry trees? I've got a 2 or 3 year old morello cherry tree which has sent out a couple of ridiculously long new branches this year, can I just trim them back to a more sensible length?

You're really not going to hurt almost any plant by pruning! As for specific place to cut, it's mostly aesthetic, so just after a leaf is generally done so you don't have a blunt, cut-off end sticking out. I like to make the cut on an angle, looks a tad more of a natural tapered edge.

As for picking which branches to cut, I believe it's best to step back from the tree, assess how you want the shape to be, and then cut the branches away that aren't adhering to that pattern. Some branches, if they're real going an odd direction you don't like, cut it quite far down, not just at the edge of the rest of the leaves.

As for the ones sticking far out, you can just chop em in line with the rest, sure, but they sound like young branches so keep in mind instead of growing further out past where you cut it, it's going to send out new branches in different directions. You can probably see what the pattern of those new branches are going to be by what is currently sprouting from each little section. So most likely if you cut it right at the edge where the other leaves are, it's still probably going to send out those other guys really far again, these ones tend to grow fast. So I'd probably cut down into the leaves more, at a point where those new branches are going to be more of a pleasing shape.

Wow I'm repeating myself a lot here and not using the correct terminology at all, keep in mind I've never been taught by anyone official at all, this is just how my mother and I would do it, it's kind of like family knowledge that's just been gleaned through the years.

Now something I would be interested in learning is if there is good stuff to put on the wounds of the tree after cutting it. I have heard conflicting things about this and generally just decide the tree probably naturally has a defense against wounds and let it be.

Thank you. That was really useful, and it's reassuring to know that I'm unlikely to hurt anything with my pruning!


Believe me, that's much appreciated! Too much of the information I've found uses so many terms I've never heard before. It's great to read something completely understandable.