any chance at a picture???

what kind of cherry ....

what spray???

if its a food cherry... do you anticipate a crop this season .... if its only a flowering tree .... why does it need spray????

though we usually say no pruning until well established .... i would have no problem removing a FEW injured or crossing interior branches .... they dont get enough sunlight anyway ....

ken

On a 2 inch caliper tree planted last year its probably best to wait atleast one more year before pruning to keep from stressing it. Don't remove more than 1/3 of the canopy in a single year, especially not this year.

This year, if you needed, you would be fine removing just a couple of the largest caliper problem branches, then next year doing the same thing. Pictures would be beneficial.

Thanks for the suggestions, and sorry it took some time to get photos. The tree is a Montmorency Cherry, and my pruning goal leans more towards aesthetics than fruit production. Ideally I would like the canopy to spread out higher than it does now, and in the coming years I plan to gradually remove lower branches. In the meantime, there are some overlapping branches that I thought I could remove now, with cut lines shown in red in the photo below.

Regarding spraying, I'm wondering if there are any preventative measures I might take for insects, fungus, etc. This is my first experience with a fruit tree, and any help is much appreciated!

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Nice looking tree. It has filled in well. Being on the front range, you shouldn't need to spray anything. Lower humidity will keep most diseases at bay, and there aren't too many insects that will bother the cherries and the area doesn't have a high density of cherry trees to support a high concentration of pests. Just watch the tree and if any problems develop, identify and treat them then.

I don't see any reason you can't do some pruning of the branches you indicate--you aren't really taking much wood out of the tree. You could probably also take a few more smaller branches out if not where you want them.

I'd also suggest you loosen the straps since the tree has been in a year, then take them off completely later in the summer.

with the wall.. i see no reason at all for the stakes ...

if it were my tree ... seeing a lot of canopy there.. i would remove the lowest two branches.. and the 2 you want to ... plus any interior damaged branches ...

i get my fruit trees mail order.. a bare twig... where you need every leaf to feed root establishment ... you have a very nice full canopy there ... so i wouldnt mind taking a few more branches than normally recommended ...

looks pretty dark in there .... i dont know if you will have sufficient light for cherry production ... but that doesnt seem to be your goal ...

one downside .. in the future it might be shed/drop fruit all over your alcove .... but you can deal with that at a later time

good luck

ken

That tree is growing in crowded quarters and it will cause you problems in the future. I'd rather recommend a rather large potted plant for your location, some folks here may recommend otherwise.

If you do keep and prune that tree, you need to select a single leader(preferably one pointing away from the house) and cut back all of the other top cluster of codominates. Then you can gradually remove a couple of them the following year. Also there's a codominate comming off the bottom that will need to be thinned back.

Keep the branches that are aiming toward the house short and therefore of low vigor and small caliper so they can be removed later on. Some branches will need to be removed since radially they are very crowded. Also, you will need to monitor and thin back branches periodically to keep them from becomming codominate.

I also can not see the root flare. Good luck with whatever your choice!

Thank you for your suggestions. This was definitely a challenging location, and it is pretty tight as you noticed. However, during the summer months it gets a lot of sunlight due to wide open western exposure. (Bonus is that it is shaded from winter sun which should help with bark splitting)

I removed an extraordinarily overgrown 20' tall maple tree from that location, so your suggestions about pruning away from the house hit the mark. Also, I attached the straps primarily to straighten the trunk, not for support. I figured I would leave them attached until maybe a month after leaf-out to allow some growth in the right direction. Any thoughts on that?

I had a Montmorency Cherry in Denver that developed both scale and black aphid problems. I used a dormant oil spray in March which seemed to eradicate them. The aphids would re-emerge later in localized spots on the tree probably because I didn't get complete coverage with the oil. There are several effective chemical methods to control them.

I agree with others that your tree will need some special pruning. Mine was 10 feet from the house and rapidly grew toward it. Also, the cherry mess underneath could not be ignored. It was fun to watch the Robins clean them up, but I still cleaned up after the Robins.

Just prune to keep leaders that are aiming away from the house and eventually it'll be growing that direction then back up towards the sky. Again, keep branches that are growing on the house side short and or bushy for now so that they'll provide sun protection for the trunk and encourage caliper growth, then in a few years you can remove them entirely.