Formation, thinning and sanitary trimming of viburnum

Guelder-rose is a very interesting crop in terms of pruning. It can be formed with a bush and a tree, make hedges out of it, give any shape to the haircut. But viburnum is good not only as an ornamental plant. Umbrellas of red berries - a storehouse of vitamins - hang on the branches until the frost. To viburnum always pleasing to the eye and replenish your winter supplies, you need to provide her with quality care, including proper shaping and pruning.

Does viburnum need pruning

Kalina, although cultivated, continues to preserve the properties of wild shrubs. Without care, it gives a lot of growth, overgrows with a large number of side branches. Each year, new shoots tend to outgrow the old, stretch to the sun, flowering and fruiting goes to the top. And the branches of the lower tier are in the shade and damp, fall ill and gradually dry up. Viburnum in a matter of years turns into an unsightly and barren dead wood.

It looks like viburnum in nature, without pruning

Meanwhile, with good care, viburnum is able to maintain an attractive appearance and yield for 20-25 years. Caring for viburnum is simple: regular watering, top dressing twice a year, and, of course, pruning. The last point is the most difficult, especially for beginners. After all, you need to know when to trim, which branches can be removed so as not to be left without berries. In addition, there are two situations where a clear action plan is required:

1. You bought a seedling and do not know how to form viburnum from scratch.
2. You got a garden with an already mature viburnum. How to thin out or rejuvenate it?

Well-groomed viburnum in the garden pleases the eye

If you crush or bite the viburnum, you will find a seed that looks like a pink heart. So nature itself tells what diseases these berries can be consumed in. Viburnum juice stimulates the heart, lowers blood pressure, is a good anti-aging agent. But it is contraindicated for people suffering from hypotension (low blood pressure).

When to prune viburnum

Pruning is an operation that injures the plant, therefore it is carried out during the dormant period when there is no sap flow. This phase begins after leaf fall and ends before buds open in spring. So, you can cut viburnum in the fall, all winter and early spring. In winter, we rarely go out into the garden, in the early spring it is still damp, we open the summer season when it is already warm and everything around is blooming and fragrant. Therefore, the best period for pruning may seem autumn - the best for you, but not for viburnum.

There are three types of cropping:

• formative;
• thinning;
• sanitary.

Each needs to be spent in due time.

Video: viburnum care, shaping and trimming

What branches can be cut in the fall

Ahead is winter, and we never know in advance how much snow will fall, what frost will be like. Accordingly, we cannot predict how the viburnum will winter, which branches or buds will freeze, how many they will break with the wind and heavy snow. It may turn out that you cut half of the branches in the fall, and winter completed this process with your own methods, as a result, the whole bush froze. Therefore, in the fall do not carry out any thinning pruning. Let the viburnum winters in a lush bush or tree. Branches in the mass will protect each other from winds and cold weather.

Snow lingers on thick branches, it serves as a warm blanket, but in large quantities it can break branches that are fragile from frost

In the fall, cut only what you in any case will not leave — sick, dried and broken branches, that is, do sanitary pruning. Dried and diseased branches can be easily distinguished from healthy ones by the bark, it is dull, wrinkled, sometimes covered with black convex dots. If you scrape your fingernail, brown dry wood or dust will be exposed, on healthy branches under the bark there is a green moist layer - cambium.

A healthy branch has a green layer under the bark

Cut dry branches to a healthy part, above a bud directed outward, and not inside the bush.

If you shorten the branch, then cut over the outer bud

Remove broken side branches on a stump. Slices with a diameter of 1 cm and more should be covered with a garden var.

Make a cut parallel to the trunk, departing from it about 3-5 mm

Do you need pruning in the summer

In summer, viburnum needs not only sanitary, but also thinning pruning. In most cases, it concerns the growth of the current year, that is, green shoots. Cut out:

• overgrowth growing from the earth. The sooner you cut off excess root shoots, the more strength will remain on the viburnum for laying and aging of next year's kidneys;
• tops. If the branch was incorrectly cut, a large stump was left, then a whole bunch of fattening shoots, vertically oriented - tops can grow from it. They need to be deleted;
• the tops damaged by pests and diseases. Kalina is often affected by aphids, leaf beetles and powdery mildew. Both pests and pathogenic fungi settle on young and tender leaves, which, as you know, are on the tops of branches. At the first sign, cut and burn the foci of infection - leaves with the tips of branches, and then treat the entire bush from parasites.

Adult branches and growths of the last year can be cut in the summer if they were broken, for example, by wind or hail.

Video: top dressing, watering, spraying viburnum

Spring pruning

In early spring, before budding, all three types of pruning should be performed. As part of the sanitary, in addition to patients and broken branches, now it is necessary to remove frozen ones as well. They look dry (and they are) and are trimmed exactly the same: on a stump or above a healthy external kidney.

An adult bush or tree needs thinning pruning, remove:

• shoots of the second order (side branches), growing vertically upwards (tops);
• knots growing inside the bush and down;
• branches intersecting and rubbing against each other - leave the strongest and most beautiful of them, and remove the second;
• umbrellas left after berries.

Video: pruning viburnum in spring

The third type of pruning, shaping, is necessary for young viburnum. You can create a bush of any shape or tree. Spring is the time most suitable for this event.

The formation of viburnum bush

Viburnum vulgaris without pruning grows a bush 2-3 m high, which consists of several strong shoots, trunks. In the garden, for the convenience of care, 5-7 powerful shoots are left and their growth is limited at the height of an arm extended upwards. But there are also decorative varieties, no more than a meter high. In addition, viburnum can be trimmed in the form of different shapes: a ball, a hemisphere, a cube, etc.

Photo Gallery: Viburnum bushes

To form a bush, follow this pattern:

1. Immediately after planting - in autumn or spring - shorten all available shoots to 2-3 buds above the ground.
2. In the summer of this year, with spring planting (and the future - with autumn), young shoots will grow from the remaining buds. As soon as their length exceeds 30 cm, pinch the tops. As a result, the bush will begin to actively recover, giving root growth.
3. Each subsequent spring, select the strongest from the root shoots, shorten them by a third to translate to lateral branching. Cut the rest of the shoots. Repeat this selection annually until you form a bush.
4. At the formed bush, remove all the overgrowth, and now limit the height of the main shoots only when they reach the height you need. When pruning, keep in mind that viburnum bears fruit at annual growths.

Cut green shoots and tops are highlighted in green on the diagram

The formation of viburnum in the form of a tree

Viburnum gives root offspring, so it is more difficult to form it in the form of a tree than, for example, an apple tree or a pear.

1. Let the young sapling take root well. Let it grow for two years without formative pruning.
2. For the third year of all available shoots, select one of the strongest and most direct, delete the rest.
3. Over the next 2-3 years, grow this shoot. Cut all the lower lateral branches to the height of the stem - 30-40 cm, leave the upper ones to choose skeletal branches from them.
4. When the trunk grows to one and a half meters, pinch the growth point.
5. From the side branches of the upper tier, form a crown that is convenient for you. The main thing is that it is not thickened - apply all the rules of thinning pruning.

The arrows on the diagram indicate the type before and after trimming

Do not forget to regularly remove all root shoots. According to numerous reviews by gardeners, the viburnum tree is fragile, the trunk is not too thick, often curved, broken by a strong wind. A backup will help to solve this problem, but a stake or a pipe standing nearby can spoil the beauty of viburnum. In addition, such a tree is less productive compared to a bush. The main advantage of this method is originality. But there are varieties that do not produce shoots, they themselves grow in one trunk, in this case, the formation of a tree is the only option.

Photo Gallery: Viburnum growing in a tree

Anti-aging pruning

After about 5-6 years of fruiting, no growth is formed on the oldest branches or they are short, that is, development stops, yield decreases. To rejuvenate the bush, cut off 1-2 of these branches, trunk, and to replace the shoots leave shoots. In this way, in 2-3 years you can gradually and completely update the bush. The method is very similar to the formation of viburnum by a bush, only in this case, not the small and weak root offspring, but the oldest trunks are removed.

A - the correct pruning of old shoots; B - incorrect pruning; hemp left on which tops thickening the crown will grow

If you had at your disposal an old and neglected viburnum with a thickened crown, thick semi-dry and bare stems, then cut the entire bush at ground level and form a new one from the shoot. But it happens that a young bush from the old root grows poorly and gives small fruits. So, viburnum has lived on this site for more than 25 years and removed from the earth all the nutrients that it can get. Then only uprooting and planting of a new seedling in another place will help.

Kalina in the form of a tree also needs to be rejuvenated. The best way is to grow a new tree from the shoot, and cut the old one. In varieties that do not produce shoots, old branches are rejuvenated, shortening them by a third or until lateral branching.

The old branch is cut to the shoot, directed in the right direction

Rejuvenate the branches by shortening in turn, for 2-3 years, and not all at once.

Cut the viburnum without fear of destroying the bush. After unsuccessful pruning, it may not bear fruit one summer, but by the next season it will recover due to overgrowth and annual lateral growths. Traditionally, viburnum is grown by a bush, but there are also trees in one trunk. With any method of formation, it is necessary to carry out sanitary and thinning scraps.