Pruning for the Florida garden

[elight]

I have always been ardently in the anti-pruning camp, but have given up the fight against disease since moving to Florida. I've also moved some plants onto my screened in pool deck to fight bugs and squirrels (which means they need to look a tad more organized).

I have three EarthTainers - two with just one large cherry variety each, and one with two larger varieties. In my raised 4x4 beds, I have just two varieties in each. All are indeterminate. I have cut way back - half the number of plants I put out in the spring.

So does anyone have a recommendation for how to go about pruning? A particular method or just a particular number of leaders? Different for cherries vs. larger varieties?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by elight

I have always been ardently in the anti-pruning camp, but have given up the fight against disease since moving to Florida. I've also moved some plants onto my screened in pool deck to fight bugs and squirrels (which means they need to look a tad more organized).

I have three EarthTainers - two with just one large cherry variety each, and one with two larger varieties. In my raised 4x4 beds, I have just two varieties in each. All are indeterminate. I have cut way back - half the number of plants I put out in the spring.

So does anyone have a recommendation for how to go about pruning? A particular method or just a particular number of leaders? Different for cherries vs. larger varieties?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Well, not all prunings are the same. Then there is side/lateral pruning and leaf branch pruning.
I prune all up to a couple of feet from the ground, gradually. This allows for a good air circulation and ease of spraying, detecting.
Then I let the top branching ( like when the branches forks ) to stay up to 4. Those , in my view, are different from laterals ( suckers ). This type of branching iss like yoy see in pepper plants.
With the determinants I try to keep most of the lateral and only prune some for air flow purpose.
Another reason for my heavy pruning is that I plant closely due to shortage of real estate. Next season I will be moving to a new location with lots and lots of land . So my pruning practice will change as I will be able to space them 3ft or more. , and row spacing of about 4 ft. So there will be a lot of air between the plants. BUT have to do some leaf and branch pruning within each plant . It you let everything go and grow , even a single plant can get like a mini jungle.

[b54red]

Cherries can usually handle more main stems but they have a tendency to put out a lot of suckers and fork often so you have to keep and eye on them and constantly pinch off suckers and forks. For me if you have a good support system you should do fine with three stems on most varieties. Eventually no matter how many stems you allow the plant will overwhelm the support system because of the long growing season down here.

I have plants set out the last week of June that are already over 10 ft tall so you can see the problem. Keeping the plants open to the light and air is critical for disease prevention down here but you will also need to regularly apply fungicides to help prevent foliage diseases. I used to use a 7 foot tall trellis to support my plants and tried to keep them to three stems except with some of the more sparse plants when I would allow up to five. Despite the tall trellis by the end of the fourth month of growing I would have a big mess requiring drastic pruning back.

I now use drop lines and keep my plants to one stem and sometimes two and use Missouri pruning to create more foliage when needed. Despite my best efforts to keep up with the pruning I always get behind but with the limited number of plants you are talking about it would be a lot easier to keep them under control.

Bill

[elight]

Thank you, both. It's hard to imagine only three or four main branches given the jungles I've created in past years. This year should be an interesting experiment. The plants are definitely easier to maintain in the fall season as opposed to the spring, as they'll start slowing down just as the first fruit ripens.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[b54red]

If you are growing any black or GWR varieties in the fall you will need to watch out for gray mold which is actually more of a problem in the fall than in the summer. Copper does a pretty good job of keeping it under control but it is best cleared up with the diluted bleach spray followed by a copper spray the next day. I just did that a few days ago and was out clipping shriveled stems and leaves this morning that resulted from the treatments.

You could use my system of single stem plantings and using the drop line with clips to support the tomatoes and actually grow four plants in each of your 4 X 4 beds but you would have to really keep up with the pruning. If you want to see some pictures of how I do this in a 4 foot wide bed but mine are a lot longer with a couple being over 30 feet long. Most of the plants in these pictures were double stem plants which are planted a bit further apart but now I have gone to only a single stem and plant them closer together approximately 15 to 24 inches apart. You may be able to tell that the plants are leaned one way on one side and the opposite way on the other side so that the plants can wrap around the trellis frame made with metal conduit held together with zip ties.

Bill

[salix]

Oh Bill, I see you have one of those lovely little round bottom "tippy" stools which are so good for leaning and reaching things in the garden. I have the dark green version; just a warning - don't use it backwards on a sloping concrete driveway...

[elight]

Haven't tried single stem yet - maybe in the spring. I have tried four plants unpruned in a 4x4 bed (caged)... It was a bit of a nightmare. Are the strings attached at the bottom somewhere to keep them tight, or does gravity do all the work?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[b54red]

Originally Posted by salix

Oh Bill, I see you have one of those lovely little round bottom "tippy" stools which are so good for leaning and reaching things in the garden. I have the dark green version; just a warning - don't use it backwards on a sloping concrete driveway...

As you can see I don't always keep the rows between the beds neat so I've ended up on my back several times.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by elight

Haven't tried single stem yet - maybe in the spring. I have tried four plants unpruned in a 4x4 bed (caged)... It was a bit of a nightmare. Are the strings attached at the bottom somewhere to keep them tight, or does gravity do all the work?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

I attach another piece of conduit along the top of the mulch before I start planting in order to hold the strings when clipping the small plants. I have had some small plants break in the wind at the graft juncture when the string isn't secured at the ground because they just swing too freely. This is especially a problem in March and sometimes April when I set out my first plants and I do it for the rest of my staggered plantings in case a sudden thunderstorm brings in high winds.

Bill